LIBRARY OE CONGRESS. I 



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UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME. 



ECCE DEUS-HOMO. 

BY A. W. PITZER. 



12mo. Extra Clotli, |1.50. 



Rev. Thomas Guthrie, D.D., says : " I was not inclined to 
part with Ecce Deus-Homo till I had read it deliberately and 
read it out; and than that I could not in any better way express 
the interest I felt in its perusal, and the high estimate I have 
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" I thank you for the sweet pleasure and profit which I have en- 
joyed through your giving me this favor." — To T. Nelson, Esq. 

Rev. Stuart Robinson, D.D., says : "We advise everybody to 
read Ecce Deus-Homo. " 

Rev. Wm. Brown, D.D., says: "We have seen no book that 
we value so much. ,, 

■k -x- * n The author has done his work with an ability that 
right-thinking men w 7 ill delight to appreciate." — Pittsburg Chris- 
tian Advocate. 

" Frequently rising to the highest point of sacred eloquence." — 
Daily News. 

" The most readable in the whole list of the Ecces." — Banner 
of Peace. 

" An able and devout defence of the Christ of Scripture." — S. S. 
Teacher, 

" A work filled with lofty conceptions." — Bulletin. 

" Not a page is tedious, wearisome, or dry." — The Episcopalian. 

Published by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & 00., Philadelphia. 



CHRIST, 



THE TEACHER OF MEN. 



"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of 
Eternal Life." 

Simon Peter. 

BY A. W. PITZER, 

! j 

AUTHOR OF " ECCE DEUS-HOMO." 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1877. 






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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 

A. W. PITZER, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



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PREFACE. 

<u 

This work seems to be called for by reason 
of the widespread unbelief of this day and genera- 
tion in the authoritative, infallible, and Divine 
Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. 

Never was there a time of more general and 
virulent infidelity than the present — infidelity with- 
out and within the Church. 

My object is not controversial, but to state the 
Truth according to the Written Word in its posi- 
tive and didactic form. 

For that Truth I have no apologies to make; 
for anything not therein revealed I have no ex- 
planation to offer. 

This book is written for the glory of the Lord 
Jesus, and to Him I now solemnly dedicate it, 
with earnest prayer for His blessing. 

A. W. PITZER. 

Washington, D. C, July 20, 1876. 

1* <? 



NOTE. 



In the preparation of this work I am indebted to the following 
authors, viz. : 

R. J. Breckinridge, " Knowledge of God," 2 vols. 
Horace Bushnell, " Nature and Supernatural." 
James Inglis, " Waymarks in the Wilderness." 
Hugh Martin, " Christ's Presence in the Gospels." 
J. McCosh, " Typical Forms." 
P. Fairbairn, " Typology." 
L. Gaussen, "Inspiration." 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

I. — The Spirit of the Learner 
II. — The Prophetical Office of Christ 
III. — The Extent of Christ's Teachings 
IV. — Christ, the Covenant Prophet . 
V. — Christ teaching through the Holy 
VI. — Christ teaching by Miracles . 
VII.— Christ teaching by Types . 
VIII. — Personal Peculiarities of Christ as 

of Men 

IX. — Christ, the Revealer of God . 
X. — The Credentials of Christ 
XI. — The Temptation of Christ 



Ghost 



Teacher 



PAGE 

• 9 

. 22 
. 42 

. 68 
. 81 

• 97 
. 118 

137 
151 

165 
197 



CHRIST, THE TEACHER OF MEN. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE LEARNER. 

Understandest thou what thou readest ? And he said, How 
can I except some man should guide me? He that is of God, 
heareth God's words. Take heed hozv ye hear. No man can say 
that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. 

For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man 
which is in him ; even so the things of God knoweth no man, but 
the Spirit of God. 

In entering upon the discussion of the subject 
of this work, it is needful to observe at the outset, 
that much depends upon the spirit of the learner. 
In point of fact, in order to profitable teaching, as 
much depends upon the pupil as upon the pre- 
ceptor. The best of teachers will make but little 
progress with an inattentive, disobedient, and stupid 
scholar. If a child dislikes any particular branch 
of knowledge, and persistently refuses to apply 
himself to it, it is absolutely certain that he will 
be a dunce in that department : no possible wis- 
dom and skill on the part of the teacher can com- 

A* 9 



10 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

pensate for the stupidity, and dislike of study on 
the part of the learner. To insure success and 
profit in any study there must be a readiness to 
receive the truth, and an earnest desire for it on 
the part of the pupil. 

The general principle underlying these state- 
ments is, that 

The kind and degree of enjoyment of every created 
thing is conditioned upon its nature and capacity. 

Under certain atmospheric and chemical condi- 
tions all kinds of herbs, flowers, and trees grow 
and thrive ; the life that is in them has the capacity 
to absorb from the soil and air certain properties 
or elements, and is thereby fed and nourished : the 
juices leap from the roots to the trunk, thence to 
the branches and limbs, and then to the foliage, 
flowers, and fruits. The flower or tree rejoices in 
this life, and every pore and fibre of its being is 
opened wide to receive food and nourishment : 
there is a capacity for, and delight in receiving; 
and this capacity conditions the life and growth 
of the tree or flower. Take away this capacity or 
faculty of reception, and the life goes with it : if 
the plant absorbs no carbon or nitrogen it will 
surely die. The air might be saturated with car- 
bon, and the soil thoroughly impregnated with 
nitrogen, but if the receptive faculty were wanting 
in the plant it could not possibly live. 

If we pass to a form of existence higher in the 



The Spirit of the Learner, 1 1 

scale of vitality than the vegetable, we find that 
irrational animals have certain enjoyments adapted 
to and determined by their nature. The horse, the 
cow, the dog, enjoy the freedom and use of their 
limbs, the moving to and fro on the earth, feeding 
upon rich pastures, receiving the master's caresses, 
and resting from labor. Change the nature of the 
animal, and it will not be able to enjoy the things 
in which it formerly delighted ; appreciation de- 
pends upon the receptive capacity. The brute can 
understand and enjoy the things of a brute, but not 
the things of man. 

Passing to a still higher form of life, viz., the 
rational, here, too, we find endless diversities of 
capacities, and therefore endless diversities of kind 
and degree of enjoyment. Some men seem to be 
only one remove from the brute — from pure animal 
existence. Their motto is, Let us eat and drink, 
for to-morrow we die. The delights of beautiful 
scenery, of poetry, of painting, of statuary, of 
music, of intelloctual and aesthetic pursuits, are 
lost to them, because they have no capacity to 
receive them. There must be the taste, the love, 
the adaptability for these things, or the man will 
utterly fail to appreciate them. Some persons find 
their greatest happiness in the fields of literature; 
they have both the taste and aptitude for acquiring 
knowledge, and pursuits in this direction afford 
them the most exquisite delight. 



12 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

Enjoyment of every sort does not depend so 
much upon external conditions as upon internal 
capacities. The magnificent scenery which charms 
the eye and thrills the heart of the cultivated artist 
is lost upon the stupid peasant at his side. Here 
the external conditions are the same, but the in- 
ternal capacities are different ; the one appreciates 
and enjoys, the other does not. 

This principle finds its highest illustration in the 
things of God, and especially in the Person and 
Teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

If attention, aptitude, desire, taste, and capacity 
be important in other pursuits, how much more 
important in this the highest of all pursuits, — the 
knowledge of God, — as that is revealed to us by 
this Teacher of men. If men cannot acquire a 
knowledge of any science by merely glancing at 
the outside of the text-books and an occasional look 
at the instructor, much less can they master the 
instructions of this Great Teacher by a few hurried 
readings of some of the more important writings 
of Him who is the Prophet of God. Here, too, 
the learner must be teachable. He that is of 
God, heareth God's words ; he that is not of God, 
heareth them not. The holy and godly man is 
teachable. He has a taste and desire for these 
Words of Heavenly Wisdom ; is willing to sit at 
the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. The Teacher 
Himself says, The Good Shepherd calleth His own 



The Spirit of tlie Learner, 1 3 

sheep by name, and the sheep follow Him, for they 
know His voice ; and a stranger will they not fol- 
low, but will flee from him, for they know not the 
voice of strangers. 

The child knows and loves the voice of its 
father, so the child of God knows and loves the 
voice of its Heavenly Father, and will instinctively 
know whether the message brought by the Teacher 
is Divine or not. 

What man knoweth the things of man, save the 
spirit of man which is in him ; even so the things 
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 
The natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, 
neither can he know them, because they are spir- 
itually discerned. It requires rational discernment 
to understand the things of a man ; it requires 
spiritual discernment to understand the things of 
God. Hence the inattentive, stupid, unspiritual 
man will not receive and profit by the teachings 
of Jesus of Nazareth. For these words of His are 
in very deed the words of God, and can be appre- 
ciated only by the spiritual man. If His Gospel 
be hid or foolishness, it is only to those who are 
blind and lost and dead ; for to be carnally minded 
is death: and to the spiritually minded, the Gospel 
is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God unto 
salvation. 

To be in sympathy and fellowship with God is 



14 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

necessary to hearing and receiving His words : 
doing His will is necessary to knowing His 
Doctrine. 

As the instinct of the animal is needful to under- 
stand the things of the animal world, as the rational 
mind is needful to understand the things of the 
rational world, so the spiritual mind is needful to 
understand the things of the spiritual world. 

If the animal complains that he cannot compre- 
hend the things of the rational world, the answer 
is easy and obvious, the animal does not have the 
intelligence and understanding of a man. If the 
stupid ignoramus complains that he cannot com- 
prehend the higher truths of science and philoso- 
phy, the answer is easy and obvious, he does not 
possess the training and mental ability necessary 
to understand these things. If the carnal man 
complains that he cannot understand and accept 
the truths of God, revealed by this Teacher sent 
from God, the answer is, only the spiritual man 
can understand the things of the Spirit of God. 
Only those who are willing to be taught can know 
and receive the Truth. A man in rebellion against 
God cannot understand the Doctrines, because he 
is not doing the will of God. 

Rays of light falling upon the eyes of the blind 
do not cause vision ; vibrations of the air falling 
upon the ears of the deaf do not produce sound ; 
so the Words of this Great Teacher sent from God 



The Spirit of the Learner. 1 5 

fail to find any response in the heart of him who 
has no spiritual discernment, no Divine Life. 

Light falling upon the healthful eye produces 
sight, and beauteous forms and lovely scenes pass 
before the enraptured gaze ; the Light of the 
Glory of God, shining in the face of Jesus Christ, 
falling upon the healthful spiritual eye produces 
spiritual vision, and forms and scenes of Heavenly 
Beauty pass before the renewed soul. To such 
an one, He who was despised and rejected of men, 
without form or comeliness, is seen indeed to 
be the Chief among ten thousand, the One alto- 
gether lovely. All who are in sympathy and fel- 
lowship with God ; all who have spiritual vision 
will hear and receive the Words of God as de- 
livered to them by Him, who is the Only Begotten 
Son, and who came from Heaven to reveal God to 
man. 

As the child will recognize the father's voice, 
so he that is of God, who is God's child, who has 
spiritual vision, will recognize and receive and love 
the Words of God when spoken by the Incarnate 
Son. To the believer, the highest evidence of the 
Divine Mission of Jesus of Nazareth is found in 
Jesus Himself; and the highest evidence of the 
Divine character and authority of the Word of 
God is found in the Word itself. To the seeing 
eye, no argument is necessary to prove that the 
sun shining in the mid-heavens at noon gives 



1 6 Christ \ the Teacher of Men. 

light, — the sun is his own proof. The light makes 
itself manifest. So to the eye, not blinded by sin 
and darkened by depravity, the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ is its own Light and proof; if men do not 
see the Light of the Sun of Righteousness it is 
because they are spiritually blind. 

The external evidences of the Divine origin 
and authority of the Christian religion are in some 
cases valuable, but the great proof is to be found 
in the Gospel itself. The best cure for Infidelity, 
in all its forms and phases, is the frequent and 
faithful study of the character, work, and Words 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In one of his remarkable conversations with the 
Jews, Jesus gives not only the true, but the philo- 
sophical reason of their rejection of Him. If ye 
were Abraham's spiritual seed; if ye were of God; 
if ye loved the Truth; if ye had spiritual discern- 
ment, then indeed ye would receive my words : 
because I tell you the Truth, ye believe me not ; 
ye therefore hear me not because ye are not of 
God. The very Truthfulness of Christ is the rea- 
son why men, in love with lies, reject Him. Light 
has come into the world, but men love the dark- 
ness rather than the light because their deeds are 
evil, and they will not come to the light lest their 
deeds should be reproved. 

The Bible everywhere ascribes man's rejection 
of Christ and His Gospel to the blindness of his 



The Spirit of the Learner. 17 

mind and the hardness of his heart; if our Gospel 
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the 
God of this world hath blinded the minds of them 
which believe not, lest the Light of the glorious 
Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should 
shine unto them ; for God who commanded the 
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our 
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the 
Glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus 
Christ. 

The full-orbed glories of the Godhead shine out 
in radiant splendor from the Person and work of 
Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Brightness of the 
Father's glory, the express Image of His Person; 
if men loved and honored the Father, they would 
also love and honor the Son ; they would delight 
to hear and receive the words of God as spoken 
by the Son ; and they would reverence and obey 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

If the heart of man were attuned to the percep- 
tion of moral beauty ; if he were possessed of 
spiritual vision ; if he naturally loved the Truth, 
then would he hail with joy the coming of this 
Teacher sent from God, with messages of mercy 
to lost and guilty man. 

It is a simple historic fact that, when this Teacher 
was on earth in the flesh and form of man, the men 
of His day and generation hated and crucified 
Him ; and if this was the treatment given to the 



1 8 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Teacher Himself, we need not wonder that great 
masses of our fellow-men, in every age since, have 
despised and rejected His Teachings. There is no 
spiritual eye in the natural man to see the Light of 
the Sun of Righteousness; no ear to hear the Glad 
Tidings of great joy which are for all the people; 
no Life to respond to Him, who is the Light and 
Life of men. The unrenewed mind and heart are 
enmity against Christ, not subject to his Teaching, 
neither indeed can be. 

The skepticism, unbelief, and infidelity of man 
have their origin, not in the head, but in the heart; 
not in lack of evidences, but in hatred of the Truth ; 
not because there is no Prophet of God to reveal 
the truth, but because they hate the message which 
the Prophet brings. 

Few Teachers who have ever appeared among 
men have had such difficulties as these with which 
to contend; spiritual blindness, deafness and death, 
hatred of the Truth, and the Teacher; and if the 
world has not received the Instructions of Jesus of 
Nazareth, this result is due not to the Teacher, but 
to the mental and moral condition of the scholars. 
He that is of God heareth God's words. 

It is true that many teachers receive the blame 
justly due to their scholars for the slow progress 
made by them in their studies. And Jesus Christ 
has received a full measure of blame, due not to 
Him, but to the people whom He came to teach. 



The Spirit of the Learner. 19 

We have all seen men so debased and brutalized 
by long courses of vice and impiety that they 
seemed to be utterly lost to all the higher and 
nobler impulses and motives which move and gov- 
ern man. Appeals to generosity, fidelity, honor, 
obligation, were powerless to move them, — and the 
nobler the motive presented, the more callous and 
insensible were they to its power. 

Hence we should not be surprised that such a 
Teacher as Jesus of Nazareth, presenting as He 
does such pure and lofty motives to men, should 
fail to move those who have no love for the Beau- 
tiful, the True, and the Good. Not the Teacher, 
but the learner is at fault in such a case as this. 

History has established nothing more clearly 
than the intense hatred of the natural man to the 
Gospel, the Doctrines, the Person, and the Work 
of this Teacher sent from God. Many of those 
who heard His Words could not endure His Doc- 
trines ; and when some turned away from Him, 
He sorrowfully asks the chosen Twelve, Will ye 
go away also ? 

If any man, therefore, is willing to listen at all 
to Christ as a Teacher, he ought to make up his 
mind to hear Him without prejudice or passion, 
and with attention and a teachable mind. If he 
makes up his mind in advance that Christ is an 
impostor ; that His claims are false ; that His Doc- 
trines are untrue, it is manifest that he will derive 



20 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

but little, if any profit, from His instructions; he 
hears with prejudice, he has prejudged the Teacher 
and His Words; he is not an impartial judge in 
this case. No civil court would permit him to 
sit in judgment in a cause involving merely- 
temporal interests in such a frame of mind as 
this. 

Alas, what multitudes listen to Christ with 
minds blinded by prejudice, and hearts inflamed 
with passion against His claims and teachings! 
They go to His Word, not to learn of Him, but 
like the scribes and Pharisees, to entrap Him in 
His talk, and to find some accusation against Him. 
It is needless to observe that men listening, in 
such a frame of mind as this, to Christ, fail to find 
anything lovable in either the Teacher or His 
Doctrines. 

Not only must the hearer listen without preju- 
dice, he must also give earnest heed and diligent 
attention to the Words of this Great Teacher in 
order to derive profit from His instructions. 

I think it is a universal law that no success is 
gained in any pursuit of life without attention. 
The inattentive scholar, or lawyer, or physician, or 
merchant will be sure to fail of any great measure 
of success or usefulness in his respective sphere. 

The subjects brought to the attention of men, 
by this Teacher, are of the highest importance, 
and demand the earnest attention of every one who 



The Spirit of the Learner. 2 1 

hears His voice. They pertain to man's interests 
in time, and his blessedness in eternity; they can- 
not be grasped and mastered by a few inattentive 
hearings of the Teacher, or a few hasty readings 
of His Word. Like Truth in every other depart- 
ment of knowledge, here too, she must be sought 
for with all earnest and eager attention and dili- 
gence, even as for hid treasures. 

In addition to this quality .of attention, the 
Learner ought to hear Christ with a " teachable" 
mind. If he assumes the position of a learner, he 
thereby accords to Christ that of Teacher; and 
when this is done, he ought to be prepared to 
hear with readiness and meekness what the Teacher 
has to say. He ought to forbear all factious op- 
position, all caviling criticism, all frivolous objec- 
tions. The interests involved are too vast to permit 
of anything less than a readiness to receive the 
Truth after a candid and attentive hearing of all 
that the Teacher has to say. 

And every man has a far greater interest in 
giving earnest heed to this Teacher than to all 
others who have ever claimed to exercise this office 
among men. He claims that His Words are Spirit 
and are Life ; that His Words are imperishable 
seed, living and abiding forever; that Heaven and 
earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle of 
all that He has spoken shall pass away. The 
destinies of our deathless souls depend upon our 



22 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

receiving or refusing to receive the Words of this 
Teacher sent from God, for He is the Way, the 
Truth, and the Life ; no man cometh unto the 
Father but by Him ; and this is Life Eternal, to 
know the only True God, and His Son Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE OF CHRIST. 

" Christ executeth the office of a Prophet in His revealing to 
the church in all ages by his Spirit and Word in divers ways of 
administration the whole will of God in all things concerning 
their edification and salvation." — Larger Catechism. 

" No man hath seen God at any time : the Only Begotten Son, 
who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." — yohn. 

" Verily, verily, I say unto thee we speak that we do know, and 
testify that we have seen." — Jesus to Nicode?nus. 

All religions which have existed among men 
have had a certain class called Teachers or Prophets. 
These men were the expounders of the Religion 
which they professed, — and wherever the Propheti- 
cal office has failed to exist, there the people were 
destitute of any religion. 

According to the Sacred Books of the Jews, 
Moses was a Prophet of God raised up to reveal 



The Prophetical Office of Christ, 23 

Him to His covenant people. Before his death, 
he told the Hebrews that God would raise up unto 
them another Prophet like unto him from among 
his brethren. 

Fifteen hundred years after these words were 
spoken, they are quoted by the Apostle Peter, and 
expressly applied by him to Jesus of Nazareth. 
He is the Prophet whom the Lord God of Israel 
hath raised from among and for His covenanted 
people. 

This Promise made by Moses, and quoted by 
Peter, is recorded in the Second Giving of the 
Law, and is recorded in immediate connection with 
the prohibitions to hearken unto Observers of 
Times, or Charmers, or Enchanters, or Wizards, or 
Necromancers, or Consulters with Spirits. This 
seeking after knowledge of Divine and eternal 
things by these unhallowed means and methods 
was one of the prevailing and universal sins of the 
heathen and idolatrous nations round about the 
chosen and redeemed people of God; and in this 
connection they are solemnly warned not to hearken 
unto these Deceivers, but to the Voice of the True 
God, and to the Words of that Prophet whom the 
Lord would raise up unto them. 

Created in the image and after the likeness of 
God Himself, Man feels within his own soul the 
pulsations of an endless life. He knows that he 
is not like the brute which to-day is, and to-morrow 



24 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

lies down in the dust to live no more forever. He 
is conscious of hopes, desires, and longings, which 
will not and cannot be satisfied with any, or with 
all the things within the horizon of earth and 
time. His moral nature asserts with intensest em- 
phasis that these things mark him as akin, and 
link him to, not the brutes around him, but to the 
God in Heaven who made him, and whose son he 
is by Creation. His Conscience bears witness to 
his guilt, and points with warning finger to the 
retributions of the Unseen and Future World. 

Driven, therefore, by the necessities of his being, 
he seeks anxiously and earnestly to pry into the 
Secrets of that World which awaits him when 
Time shall be no more. 

The hungry cry of his deathless spirit is, — I must 
know something of the' Life beyond the grave; 
something of those realities upon which I shall 
enter, when the corruptible shall put on incorrup- 
tion, and the mortal shall put on immortality. His 
soul will not rest in dread uncertainty concerning 
the Eternal Future, and hence Man is found every- 
where seeking knowledge of what shall befall him 
beyond the grave. Without a Revelation from 
God he is left in darkness, dread, and doubt, and 
becomes the willing dupe of any Soothsayer, 
Charmer, or Observer of Times, or Consulter with 
Spirits. 

Abundant evidence is found in the history of the 



The Prophetical Office of Christ. 25 

race that, in every age and among all people, men 
have appeared who claimed to have dealings with 
the Unseen World, and to have power to foretell the 
events of the Future. They have been known by 
different names, as soothsayers, astrologers, necro- 
mancers, charmers, consulters, wizards, familiar 
spirits, mediums, clairvoyants, — and it is a remark- 
able fact that the large portion of the human race 
have believed that these persons did actually pos- 
sess the power which they claimed to have. 

While it is true that the great majority of these 
Dealers with spirits, and the departed, and the 
Unseen World have been guilty of the grossest 
frauds and deceptions; it is also true that there are 
many well-attested cases of power exercised, and 
knowledge imparted by them, that cannot be ex- 
plained upon any other theory than that of Satanic 
and diabolical agency. And if, as many assert, 
the whole thing is a delusion, then it is simply in- 
comprehensible that the Divine Lawgiver, in both 
Testaments, should have so carefully and sternly 
legislated against a mere "delusion" against some- 
thing which had no objective existence. How far 
the Devil may give information to his dupes is not 
revealed in the Word of God; but the fact of his 
having dealings with those who are led captive at 
his will, and of his imparting information to them, 
no believer in the Divine origin and inspiration of 
the Bible can for a moment doubt or deny. 
b 3 



26 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

The Devil claimed to be a Teacher, and to impart 
knowledge to man in his primeval state in Eden, — 
ye shall not surely die, was his lie to the woman in 
regard of the forbidden tree, — and from that day to 
this he has been engaged in deceiving the nations 
and individuals with his lying words and wonders. 

God's ancient and covenant people were most 
solemnly commanded not to seek after or consult 
these wicked and devilish methods of obtaining 
information ; they must not have dealings with 
enchanters or charmers or spirits. To do this was 
treason against that God who had brought them up 
from bondage ; that God who was their king ; that 
God who had given them a true Prophet to declare 
all of His Will concerning them. 

Not unto these false Teachers of the heathen or 
like unto the heathen must they seek, but unto the 
True and Living God must they go : unto that 
Prophet who should speak all the Words which 
the Lord God should give Him. The Lord Jesus 
Christ is then the True Prophet, like unto Moses, 
whom God hath raised up and sent, unto whom men 
must apply for knowledge of God and eternal things. 

The word Prophet is not used in the sense of a 
"foreteller" who makes known to men future events, 
but one who speaks for or in the place of another : 
a prophet of God is one who speaks for God. " The 
Greek 'tt/w' is a particle of place, not of time." 

Jesus Christ is a Prophet of God in the sense 



The Prophetical Office of CI iris t. 27 

that he speaks for God to men ; He brings a mes- 
sage from God. I will put my words in his mouth, 
saith Jehovah, and he shall speak unto them all 
that I command him. Moses and all the Prophets 
of the Old Dispensation were "types' of Christ in 
his Prophetical office. 

Many persons and events of that Economy were 
types of Christ. Jesus Himself says, As Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. David upon the throne of Israel was 
a type of David's greater son seated upon the Me- 
diatorial throne. Aaron the High-Priest slaying 
the victim, and passing with sacrificial blood into 
the Holiest of all, was a type of our Great High- 
Priest, who, having offered the sacrifice on the 
cross, hath passed up into the true Holiest of all 
to plead before the throne His own precious blood 
as the righteous and valid ground of His people's 
acceptance. Moses receiving the Law directly 
from Jehovah, and speaking for Him to the people, 
is a type of the Greater Prophet who comes directly 
from the bosom of God with Divine Messages for 
lost and ruined man. 

Jesus of Nazareth, as Mediator between God and 
men, executeth the office of a Prophet in His re- 
vealing to the Church in all ages by His Spirit and 
Word, in divers ways of administration, the whole 



28 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

will of God in all things concerning their edification 
and salvation. 

It must be distinctly understood that Christ, as 
the Prophet of God, does not propose or profess to 
reveal all knowledge, but only such as is necessary 
to salvation. He does not undertake to answer all 
the curious, prying, impertinent questions which 
men may ask concerning things which have no 
bearing whatever upon their salvation as sinners 
or their edification as saints. When we speak, 
therefore, of the Completeness of Christ's Teach- 
ings, we must be understood to apply the word 
"complete" to the " whole will of God unto the 
salvation of His people. " 

We are not at liberty to limit the teachings of 
Christ to His own personally uttered words. He 
makes Himself responsible for the entire Scriptures 
of the Old and New Testaments. The words writ- 
ten by Moses, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Matthew, John, 
and Paul are no less His Words than the parables 
which fell from his own lips. The whole Bible, — 
Law, Prophets, Hagiographa, Evangelists, Epistles, 
and Revelation, — all these are the Words of this 
Great Prophet sent from God. All Scripture is 
given by inspiration of God ; by the Spirit of 
Christ, who led holy men of old to record these 
words. Hence . the command, Search the Scrip- 
tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal Life, 
and they are they which testify of Me. 



The Prophetical Office of Christ, 29 

The Bible, therefore, contains the "complete" 
teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this Book, 
and by His Spirit as an Infallible Interpreter, He 
makes known the whole will of God unto our sal- 
vation and edification. 

In this Book of Instructions, it must be remem- 
bered that Christ does not profess to teach all 
knowledge, but only that which is unto man's sal- 
vation. The Bible is not a book of Science, but a 
book of Salvation. Christ Jesus does not propose 
to teach Geology, or Astronomy, or Philosophy, 
or Mathematics, or Geography, or History, or Eth- 
nology. True, there are teachings here about the 
Heavens and Earth, about the rise and downfall of 
empires and nations, about the mind and heart, 
and about tribes and races ; and all of these, when 
properly interpreted, are found to be in perfect 
accord with all the facts of true Science, — but the 
knowledge thus communicated is always subordi- 
nate and ancillary to the great end of teaching man 
the way of eternal Life. 

In this day of boastful scientific infidelity, it may 
be safely asserted that no statement of this Teacher 
is contradicted or disproved by any one well-authen- 
ticated and established fact in any department of 
knowledge. It ought never to be forgotten that 
scientific theories are very different things from sci- 
entific facts. All of Darwin's asserted facts might 
be true ; and at the same time, his entire theory be 



30 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

wholly false. We cannot give up the Teachings 
of this Prophet sent from God, authenticated as 
true by every possible evidence, for any theory, 
however plausible or brilliant, based upon a few 
asserted facts. Has any fact of science ever been 
established which disproves the Creation, the 
Flood, or the Exode ? If so, let that fact be 
proclaimed. 

Nor does this Prophet undertake to answer all 
of the questions which men in every age have so 
anxiously asked, — What is the origin of Evil , how 
did Sin ever find entrance into a holy universe, 
under the Government of an Almighty and Benevo- 
lent God ? How can Divine Sovereignty and 
human freedom coexist and harmonize? Are 
there few that be saved ? Are other worlds in- 
habited? These and many other questions of 
similar import have no possible bearing upon 
man's salvation or present duty, and are therefore 
not answered by this Prophet of God; He teaches 
all of our duty, but never panders to our curiosity. 
Doubtless the discussion of these questions is in- 
teresting, and many minds have revolved them 
long and anxiously, but it is easy to see that if 
Jesus had given us their perfect solution, this could 
in no wise have affected the question either of our 
duty or blessedness. There is nothing pertaining 
to our duty or salvation that is not fully and clearly 
stated : all that we need to know of ourselves, of 



The Prophetical Office of Christ. 31 

the universe, of God, is made known; the whole 
will of God unto our salvation is revealed. 

He comes with a definite object before Him, viz., 
to reveal God to man in order to salvation ; and 
everything necessary to this He makes as clear as 
the light of the sun. He tells how the guilty may 
find pardon ; how the blind may see ; the deaf, hear; 
the lame, walk; the dead, live. He tells where 
the weak may find strength; the tempted, succor; 
the backslider, healing; the troubled, peace ; and 
the weary, rest. He answers fully and clearly every 
question of present or future interest to man. 

Whence came I, and whither do I go ? What of 
the Future Life, and what relation has the present 
to that which is to come ? Who is God, and what 
is His character, and how may I find His favor, 
and live with Him in peace and blessedness for- 
ever? What of my duties to my neighbor, to 
society, to civil government, and to the Church 
of God? What of guilt and Sin and Death and 
Heaven and Hell and the Judgment and the Retri- 
butions of Eternity ? These, and questions of like 
import, so wide in their bearings, so vast in their 
results, so infinite in their importance, are all clearly, 
wisely, satisfactorily, answered by this Prophet sent 
from God. He teaches all that man is to believe 
concerning God, and all the duties which God re- 
quires of Him. No question arises in the human 
soul having any practical bearing upon our relations 



32 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

to God, or our duty to Him or to our fellow-mortals, 
that does not find here its complete and perfect 
answer. The teachings of this Prophet are com- 
plete — yea, perfect : 

" More to be desired are they than gold, 
Yea, than much fine gold, 
Sweeter also than honey, 
And the droppings of the honey-comb." 

It is worthy of special notice that, with all the 
gathered and garnered wisdom of six thousand 
years, and all the boasted progress of this restless 
generation, man has been unable to add to the 
Teachings of this Prophet of Nazareth one single 
new truth in morals or religion. The men of our 
day can repeat truthfully the words of the men of 
His day, " never man spake as this man." Will 
the w r orld never learn that no improvements can 
ever be made upon the Teachings of this Divine 
Instructor ? 

How foolish and wicked, therefore, are all at- 
tempts, no matter from what quarter they come 
nor by whomsoever made, to improve the sure 
Word of Christ which liveth and abideth forever! 
How idle the folly that w T ould supplement and com- 
plete these Divine Teachings with the traditions 
of men, the investigations of science, the attain- 
ments of human reason, the results of philosophical 
inquiry ! As well seek to gild refined gold, or re- 



The Prophetical Office of Christ, 33 

paint the rainbow, as to improve upon or progress 
beyond the Teachings of Him who spake as never 
man spake. 

In this age, so proud and arrogant, wise men 
write and lecture of Light and Heat, and Law and 
Star Depths, all evolving themselves, by virtue of 
inherent forces, out of primordial atoms or cells, 
and laugh to scorn the Teachings of Him who tells 
that a Personal extramundane God in wisdom, 
beauty, and glory, hath made them all : Science, 
falsely so called, comes telling us that the Cos- 
mogony of Jesus as delivered to men, by Moses, 
is in conflict with the researches of modern thought 
and with the views of teachers far superior to the 
Christ of God, and that it must be at once rejected 
as a baleful superstition or the relic of barbaric 
ignorance : ethnologists loudly proclaim that the 
Bible doctrine of the human race can be no longer 
received by educated thought ; that the race is not 
of one blood, made in the image and after the 
likeness of God, but that man had many origins 
and that the ape or gorilla is the father of us all : 
self-satisfied Reformers, so called, failing to find 
in the legislation of Jesus anything satisfactory to 
their gigantic intellect upon the questions of Labor, 
Woman, and Temperance, proclaim the New Evan- 
gel as the Panacea for all human ills ; and Cru- 
saders rising up in all quarters announce doctrines 
and duties upon these and kindred subjects which 



34 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

the Christ of God failed to provide for in His in- 
complete and imperfect code : the old race of necro- 
mancers and astrologers lives again in modern 
mediums and clairvoyants, and turns many a dis- 
honest penny with senseless dupes and fortune- 
hunters who prefer the information rapped out on 
a table by a deceiver, or the Devil, to the Truth as 
taught by Him who cannot lie ; popularity-seekers 
in and out of the pulpit tell us that Jesus was all 
wrong and knew nothing of the nature of God 
when He declared that all impenitent and unbe- 
lieving men shall be turned into hell, with all the 
nations that forgot God ; and that all who have 
served their country and kept their hands from 
personal or official theft are at once ushered into 
that Heaven purchased for penitent and believing 
sinners by the blood of God's Incarnate Son: no 
wonder that the very devils should cry out, "Jesus 
we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye ?" 

Just at this point, around this citadel of the 
Completeness and Perfection of Christ's Prophetical 
office, the battle rages with unabated and keenest 
fury; for both parties well know that everything 
depends on this. Romanists and Rationalists unite 
their forces to destroy this stronghold of the Chris- 
tian Faith. If the Teachings of Christ are to be 
supplemented by the Traditions of the Church, 
then He is no longer an Infallible Teacher, and the 
Church usurps His prerogative: if, on the other 



The Prophetical Office of Christ. 35 

hand, Reason is at liberty to reject any distasteful 
doctrine of His Word, and substitute therefor some- 
thing more pleasing and palatable, then the same 
result is accomplished; and every man makes his 
own Bible, and becomes his own Teacher. 

There is another element entering into Christ's 
Prophetical office, viz., He teaches with absolute 
certainty. 

Teaching may be very full and comprehensive, 
and yet leave us in great doubt and uncertainty, in 
which case we derive little or no profit : and in fact 
this is the great difficulty we experience with all 
merely human teachers ; they do not at all times 
and on all subjects speak with absolute certainty; 
and of course, where the teacher is not certain of 
his own conclusions, the hearer will receive them 
with hesitation and doubt. In order to carry con- 
viction to the minds of others, we must be thor- 
oughly convinced ourselves of the truthfulness of 
what we advance. If we are in doubt ourselves, 
all who hear us will doubt. 

Take up the writings of any man, and you will 
find that there are many points upon which he 
speaks with diffidence, with hesitation, with doubt. 
He himself is not certain of the soundness of his 
own statements and conclusions, and it is impossi- 
ble for him to impart to another mind a conviction 
of certainty which he does not himself possess. As 
a matter of fact, every honest man docs have this 



36 Christ, the Teacher of Men 

feeling of distrust as to all of his own reasonings 
and conclusions. 

The wisest, most careful, and pairfstaking of 
human teachers are often compelled to review, to 
modify, to change, what they have said and writ- 
ten. Opinions held most tenaciously at one period 
of life, are scornfully rejected at another; doc- 
trines despised and denounced at one time, are re- 
ceived and loved at another. We are ever changing 
our views, opinions, and theories on all subjects, 
and the man who boasts that he never changes is 
far more obstinate than he is wise. 

Amid the ceaseless change and conflict of human 
views and opinions, with what a sense of relief do 
we turn to the clear, calm, certain utterances of this 
Great Prophet of God ! The deep, quiet certainty 
of his own soul impresses itself upon us, and we 
listen with joyous hearts to Him as He says, Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest. Here is One who, unlike all 
other teachers, speaks with an air of profound 
conviction, with absolute certainty : and this one 
element, separating Him from all merely human 
teachers, marks Him as the Prophet sent from 
God, the True Teacher of all men, in all ages and 
all lands. 

Without preparation, or premeditation, or hesi- 
tation, or delay, or doubt, or uncertainty, He speaks 
clearly and fully upon all subjects pertaining to sal- 



The Prophetical Office of Christ. 37 

vation, whether past, present, or future. He never 
changes His views, alters His opinions, or modifies 
His Teachings. As Teacher, He is the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and forever. With Him there is no 
Past, nor any Future, all is an ever-living Present. 
With Him all is Here and Now. By one act of 
his Infinite Intelligence He comprehends all knowl- 
edge ; this knowledge can never be either increased 
or diminished. What He knows now He has al- 
ways known, nor is it possible for Him ever to 
know less. All knowledge of all things is ever 
clearly before Him, and out of this Infinite knowl- 
edge He speaks for God to men. 

He speaks with the same conscious superiority 
and certainty, whether the subject be God or man, 
angels or devils, individuals or nations. Of the 
Future World, so dark and uncertain to the wisest 
of mortals, He speaks with the same assurance that 
He does of things passing immediately under His 
own personal observation. The beggar dies, and 
is borne by angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich 
man also dies, and is buried; and in Hell he lifts 
up his eyes, being in torment. The Angels come 
forth at the end of the world, and sever the right- 
eous from the wicked. All angels, men, and devils 
are gathered together before the Great White 
Throne. Death and hell are cast into the lake 
of fire and brimstone. In the whole compass of 
human teaching there is nothing comparable to 

4 



38 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

these words of this Prophet of Nazareth. Who of 
all the children of men would dare thus to speak 
of the Unseen and Eternal World ? As we gaze 
upon these stupendous scenes of that World to 
which we so rapidly hasten, we are forced to cry 
out, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art 
the Teacher of men. The Bible is just the outflow 
and overflow of this fullness of knowledge which 
dwells in Jesus Christ. 

It would turn us aside too far from the direct 
line of thought proposed in this discussion to de- 
velop just here the relation between this element 
of certainty in the teachings of Christ and the life 
of God in the human soul. Faith is the differentia 
of the Christian, distinguishing him from all other 
men: the just shall live by his Faith. Faith is 
the very life of the Christian ; and faith cometh by 
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith 
is always certain. It says, I know whom I have 
believed. It is the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen. We have the 
Substance and the Evidence because of the sure 
Word of our Divine Teacher. 

In addition to Completeness and Certainty, the 
Prophetical office of Christ Jesus is clothed with 
Authority. 

When He ended His sayings, the people were 
astonished, for He taught them as one having 
authority, and not as the scribes. Verily, verily, 



The Prophetical Office of Christ. 39 

I say unto you, is his emphatic assertion of 
authority. 

Man instinctively reverences authority, whether 
it be the authority of Power, or of Law, or of 
Truth, or of God. Knowing that he is finite and 
dependent, he looks to some one higher than him- 
self to control and guide him. His cry is ever, 
Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. And 
whatever may be our confidence in, and respect 
for, any merely human teacher, we still feel and 
know that, like ourselves, he is finite and fallible. 
We must hear some voice of Divine Authority 
and Infinite Truth, or be miserable for evermore. 

This Prophet speaks with all the authority of 
Infinite and Eternal Truth, and Infinite and Eter- 
nal Godhead. Come, see a man that told me all 
that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? 

The Voice that we hear in the Bible is indeed 
and in truth the Voice of very God, shrined in 
human flesh and form, One who speaks Divine 
Words of Truth and Tenderness, and who has the 
absolute and perfect right to teach man what he 
shall believe concerning God, and what duties 
God requires of him. 

In the instructions of all merely human teachers 
this element of authority is wanting, — they dare 
not say to their fellow-mortals, You must believe 
what I say unto you, or die and be miserable for 
evermore. But this quality is characteristic of all 



40 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Christ says to men. His cry ever is, Hear me, 
believe me, love me, obey me, follow me, and all 
uttered with a tone of conscious superiority and 
infinite authority; nor do the words coming from 
his lips fall unpleasantly upon our ears. Thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of the purest and best 
of earth recognize His Divine Voice, and yield 
obedience to His authoritative commands.* 

The authoritative character of Christ's teachings 
rests upon His Supreme Godhead and Infallible 
Truth. He is Divine and He is the Truth. We 
hear much in this day of Church Authority and 
Infallibility. And some scores of our fellow-mor- 
tals met in solemn council, and decreed and pro- 
claimed to the world that one of their number, 
finite, fallible, and mortal, did indeed possess this 
attribute of Godhead, and was himself the Infal- 
lible Teacher of men, and that all who will not 
submit to him, and yield obedience to his com- 
mands, are living in mortal sin. 

And even outside the Papal Hierarchy, the 
dogma of Church Authority is elevated to a posi- 
tion of prominence not given it in the Teachings 
of Christ, and the wrath of God is denounced upon 
all those who are casting out devils not after ap- 
proved ecclesiastical methods. 



* Read Bushnell's matchless chapter on the " Supernatural 
Character of Christ.' ' 



The Prophetical Office of Christ. 41 

Whenever and just so far as the Church speaks 
the Words of Christ she is Infallible. Just so soon 
as she speaks in her own name, her own words, 
by her own authority, she is not infallible. 

His Infallible, Authoritative, Prophetical office 
he never delegated to men, or to His Church. 
The Church is His Witness to take up and repeat 
to all men, until Time shall be no more, the Words 
of this Divine Teacher, this Prophet anointed of 
God. 

The one inalienable right and paramount duty 
of every human being is to hear the voice of this 
Teacher. No Pope, or Council, or Church may 
dare come between the soul and this Prophet who 
speaks for God. Unto Him must men hearken. 
To hear and obey, is Life ; to refuse to hear and 
disobey, is Death, Eternal Death. The men who 
refused to hear and obey Moses died without 
mercy under two or three witnesses, of how much 
sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who 
refuses to hear the voice of this Prophet who speaks 
to men from Heaven! The Queen of Sheba shall 
rise up in the Judgment against the men of this 
generation, for she came from the uttermost parts 
of the earth to hear the Wisdom of Solomon, and 
behold a greater than Solomon is here. See that 
ye refuse not Him that speaketh. 



A 2 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 



CHAPTER III. 

THE EXTENT OF CHRIST'S TEACHINGS. 

" Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets ; 
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill ; for verily I say unto 
you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise 
pass from the Law till all be fulfilled. Search the Scriptures, 
for in them ye think ye have eternal Life, and they are they 
which testify of Me. The spirit of prophecy is the Testimony 
of Jesus." 

" And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He expounded 
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." 

The Press is justly regarded as one of the most 
powerful and controlling forces in modern society 
and civilization. The Printing Press multiplies 
books and writings to a degree that is almost in- 
calculable ; and the words spoken to-day in some 
great centre of thought or activity, are read to- 
morrow in hundreds of places thousands of miles 
away. 

The ancients did not possess this instrument 
for multiplying copies of the writings of the great 
and good among them; yet their thoughts were 
committed to writing, and handed down to sub- 
sequent generations. The thoughts of David, Isaiah, 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 43 

Homer, Plato, Cicero, Augustine, have come down 
to us in the very language in which they were 
spoken and written. 

It is a remarkable fact that Jesus of Nazareth, 
the Greatest of all Teachers, wrote absolutely 
nothing. 

On a memorable occasion, He stooped down 
and wrote on the ground, but no trace of that sur- 
vives ; no fragment of His writing has been handed 
down from age to age ; no book written by Him 
can be found in any of the famous libraries of the 
world; no manuscript of His is laid away in any 
of the archives of the nations ; and in vain will 
you search among the treasured things of the 
earth for even his autograph. And yet no. teacher 
has ever succeeded in making his thoughts so 
clearly, so fully, and so generally known. While 
the thoughts of Plato are known only to the 
learned few, the words of Jesus of Nazareth are 
read by hundreds and thousands in almost every 
language spoken by men, — even the blind read His 
Teachings in the raised letters of their Bibles. 
With the lapse of time, other teachers become 
less and less known ; but Jesus is only the more 
fully and widely known as the ages roll away. 
Each day, as the sun rises in the Heavens, mil- 
lions of men are found diligently and devoutly 
studying the matchless words of this Teacher 
come from God. No power of man can expunge 



44 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

from the heart of the human race these words of 
Christ that live and abide forever. 

Four brief biographies, written by Jews of no 
special culture, contain all that the human race 
possesses of the Words personally uttered by Him. 
The Sermon on the Mount, the Parables, His con- 
versation with Nicodemus, and the woman of 
Samaria; and His discussions with the Jews at 
Jerusalem at the Passover preceding His cruci- 
fixion, and His address and prayer the night before 
His death, constitute the bulk of His own person- 
ally spoken instructions. And many suppose that 
the Teachings of Jesus are limited to these few 
personally spoken words ; that in these we have 
all that Christ ever said in the way of instructing 
men in Divine things ; that as Teacher of men, 
He is responsible for these, and these only. Hence 
we often hear men, who reject the entire Doctrinal 
System of Christ as developed by the Apostles, 
speak in glowing terms of the pure morality of the 
Sermon on the Mount, and the matchless beauty 
of the Parables of our Lord. And yet the Doc- 
trines of the Epistles are no less the Words of 
Christ than the Sermon or the Parables ; for He 
commissioned the Apostles, and His Spirit gave 
them utterance, and put the Words of the Lord 
in their lips. 

The question is, therefore, properly answered 
here, Are these personally spoken Words all of 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 45 

the Teachings of this Prophet of God ; or are there 
other Words delivered by His Spirit to Holy Men 
who have delivered the same to us, even as the 
Spirit of Christ, who was in them, taught them ? 

Are His Words when given to us mediately, 
through Holy men, even as they received them 
from Christ, any the less His than those which 
fell from his own lips ? Are not my thoughts, 
when dictated to an amanuensis, and written by 
him precisely as spoken by me, as much mine as 
if I had spoken or written them ? Would I not 
be just as responsible for the contents of this book 
prepared in this manner as I am for it when I 
write with my own hand all the words contained 
in it ? 

If forty men had received words at my lips, and 
then had written them in a book ; and I should 
make myself responsible for the whole book, and 
accompany the publication with a statement over 
my own signature announcing that the words and 
thoughts were all mine, would not that be my 
book ? 

This is precisely what Christ has done as regards 
the entire body of the Sacred Scriptures, both Old 
and New Testaments. He makes Himself respon- 
sible for all that the Apostles, Evangelists, and 
Prophets wrote : He gave His words to them, and 
they wrote them by Inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 
This point cannot be insisted upon with too great 



46 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

emphasis or pertinacity ; for it is true beyond ques- 
tion that the whole Bible is Christ's; He makes 
Himself responsible for it all. If men receive 
Christ, at all, as a Divine Infallible Teacher, they 
must receive all of His Words; they cannot accept 
His own personally uttered instructions and reject 
His other Teachings when delivered by his inspired 
servants : they must receive or reject both alike. 

The Mosaic Record of Creation, the Fall, the 
Deluge, the Law given from the burning mount, 
the Psalms of David, imprecatory and all, the 
Visions of Ezekiel and Daniel, the Prophecies of 
Isaiah and Jeremiah, the Gospels of Matthew and 
John, the Epistles and the Revelation, are just as 
much His as the Sermon on the Mount or the 
Parable of the Prodigal Son. The Spirit which 
pervades the entire Bible, the Inner Life Essence 
of it all, is a Testimony of and to the Lord Jesus 
Christ. And this Prophecy, or speaking for God, 
came not in old time by the will of men, but Holy 
Men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost. It was the Spirit of Christ in the 
Prophets who testified beforehand His Sufferings 
and the Glory that should follow. The Teacher 
Himself says, Search the Scriptures, for in them ye 
think ye have eternal Life, and they are they which 
testify of Me. After His Resurrection, when He 
appeared to two of His Disciples, He said, O fools, 
and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets 



The Extent of Christ s Teachings. 47 

have spoken : ought not Christ to have suffered 
these things, and to enter into His glory ? And 
beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He ex- 
pounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things 
concerning Himself. These few passages, selected 
from many of similar import, spoken by the Teacher 
Himself, establish beyond doubt the fact, that Jesus 
Christ makes Himself responsible for all the Words 
of Moses and the Prophets recorded in the Jewish 
Sacred Scriptures. The writers are but the aman- 
uenses to record the words that Christ gives them 
to speak. Nay, they are but the pens which the 
Divine Teacher holds, and with which He records 
his own imperishable thoughts. True, the writers 
preserve their own personal peculiarities, just as 
the pen, whether steel, rubber, gold, or goose-quill, 
preserves its own character, but the Mind that thinks 
is that of Christ, and it is His Hand that holds and 
writes. It is the same God who spake at sundry 
times, and in divers manners, unto the Fathers by 
the Prophets, who now speaks unto us by the lips 
of His own Incarnate Son, and again by His Spirit- 
inspired Apostle : from beginning to end, from 
Genesis to Revelation, it is the Voice of God that 
we hear. 

There is no conflict of teaching between the dif- 
ferent parts of the Bible, between the Old and the 
New Testaments, between the Law and the Gos- 
pels, between Christ and the Apostles. The same 



48 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

Divine life flows through every part, and Christ 
Himself is the completion and fulfillment of all, — 
He is the Incarnate Word. He asserts in the most 
emphatic manner, I am not come to destroy the 
Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill. When He went 
into the synagogue, and read from Isaiah's prophecy 
a description of Messiah and His work, He adds, 
This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. 
Paul, who was called and commissioned by Christ, 
declares that He said none other things than those 
which the Prophets and Moses did say should 
come. 

It is, therefore, the supremest folly for men to 
say that they accept as Divine the Words person- 
ally uttered by Christ, but reject the Words put by 
Christ Himself into the mouths of the Prophets and 
Apostles; that some of the things spoken by Him 
are true, and other things are false; that in some 
respects' the Teachings of Christ are good, but in 
others very bad ; that not all, but only portions 
can be accepted as true and good. This principle 
at once robs Christ of all His authority, certainty, 
and completeness as a Divine and Infallible 
Teacher, and enthrones Human Reason as su- 
preme Instructor in the Prophet's office. Christ 
Himself declares that all of His Words are Divine, 
the Words given Him to utter by His Father in 
Heaven. Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as 
the Father said unto Me, so I speak : and since 



) 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 49 

He declares that all the Words of Scripture are 
His, that He is responsible for them all, the con- 
clusion is inevitable that all are equally of God, 
equally of the Father, are of Divine origin, au- 
thority, and obligation. 

Away, then, with that theory of interpretation 
which says, I accept as Divine the gentle and 
charitable teachings as uttered by Jesus of Naza- 
reth, but I reject the harsh and revengeful legisla- 
tion of Moses. I delight in the beautiful ethical 
truths of the Evangelists, but I abhor the cruel 
and vindictive spirit of the Psalms and the Proph- 
ets. The sublime morality of the Epistles wins 
my warmest admiration, but the impurity of the 
Old Testament arouses my deepest detestation. 

Such a view as this involves the absurdity that 
the Divine and Infallible Prophet teaches one thing 
by His servant Moses, and another and contradic- 
tory thing by John and Paul ; that the exposition 
of the Law given by Jesus Himself is far less rigid 
than the Law as originally promulgated through 
Moses from the Burning Mount; that the Lord 
Jesus far less severely condemned and punished 
immorality under the Old than under the New 
Covenant; and that for four thousand years the 
Prophet of God taught an incomplete and impure 
code of morals and piety. 

Beyond question the Teachings of Christ in the 
Bible are not contradictory but harmonious. All 
c 5 



50 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, 
for Instruction in Righteousness. To the diligent 
and thoughtful student of the Word there is a pro- 
found and glorious Unity pervading the Teachings 
of the Lord Jesus, whether Law or Gospel, Prophet 
or Apostle, Psalm or Epistle. Whosoever will 
accept Jesus as a Teacher sent from God must 
receive all of His Instructions as Divine, must 
receive the whole Bible as His Inspired and Infal- 
lible Word unto salvation. 

An examination of the Bible, which contains 
the complete, certain, and authoritative Teachings 
of Jesus Christ, the Prophet of God, reveals the 
fact that this Book consists of three distinct parts 
or elements, and that these embrace the sum total 
of all that man is required to believe and do. If 
man shall know, and believe, and do these Teach- 
ings of the Infallible Prophet, then Eternal Life 
and Blessedness shall be his portion with God 
for evermore. The entire contents of the Bible 
may be arranged under three heads, viz. : Facts, 
Doctrines, and Duties, — a threefold cord not easily 
broken. We have, 

First: A Record of Facts. 

Second: A System of Doctrine. 

Third: A Code of Duties. 

The Facts precede the Doctrines, the Doctrines 
precede the Duties. The Doctrines flow from the 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 51 

Facts, the Duties grow out of the Doctrines; the 
Three : — Facts, Doctrines, and Duties, stand or 
fall together ; the acceptance of one carries with it 
the acceptance of all; the rejection of one necessi- 
tates logically the rejection of all. If the recorded 
facts of Scripture are not true, then the foundation 
of Doctrine is gone, and with it all Duties disap- 
pear: there can be no duty apart from some Doc- 
trine ; nor can any doctrine exist except as based 
upon some fact, some objective reality. The Di- 
vine Teacher, with the pen of Moses, records the 
Fact of Creation ; growing out of this, He reveals 
the Doctrine of a Personal Creator; and as a re- 
sult of this Fact and Doctrine He inculcates the 
duty of the creature. If there be no Fact of a 
creation, then there is no Doctrine concerning the 
Creator; and hence of necessity, no Duty of the 
creature to the Creator; and if the Fact of a crea- 
tion, the Doctrine of a Creator, and the Duty of 
the creature be stricken from the Record, then the 
foundation of the system of Religion taught by 
Jesus of Nazareth is removed. Many persons are 
disposed to say, We care nothing for the Facts 
and Doctrines of the Bible, only the Duties com- 
manded by Christ concern us : others insist upon 
the System of Doctrine, but are willing to give up 
the Facts as of no special importance ; but it is 
perfectly apparent that we must either hold to all 
or reject all, — the three cannot be disconnected. 



52 Christ \ the Teacher of Men. 

The Facts embraced in this Book of Christ's 
Teachings cover a period of about four thousand 
years; from the creation to the days when the Son 
of God was incarnate on this earth of ours. Some 
of the Facts of Scripture occurred after His Ascen- 
sion into Heaven, and they are recorded in the New 
Testament. In the Bible we have an accurate and 
authentic account of what God and man, angels 
and devils, said and did. So far as Facts are con- 
cerned, the Spirit of Christ moved Holy Men of 
God to record them precisely as the events oc- 
curred, and to record these and not others. It is 
of vast importance to remember that a very large 
portion of Christ's Word is a simple record of 
Facts ; of what was said and done ; of lies spoken 
by Devils, of sins committed by men, even by 
saints, of ministries of Angels, of works wrought 
by God, and ordinances appointed by Him. 

As regards this element of the Sacred Scrip- 
tures, Christ as Teacher is responsible for the 
accurate record of the Fact, not for its moral char- 
acter. He is also responsible for the proper ar- 
rangement and use of the Facts in revealing to 
man the Will of God unto salvation. As a 
Teacher of Historic salvation, Christ's statement 
of Facts must be accurate and authentic. 

It is proper just here to call attention to what 
has always been to many students of the Word 
of Christ a great stumbling-block, viz. : 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 53 

The Sins of the Saints in the Old Testament. 

It is true that Christ has recorded, as matters of 
fact, the sins of those who sincerely loved Hirn. 
With the Word of God before us, no one can for 
a moment doubt the sincere piety of Noah, Abra- 
ham, Jacob, David, or Peter ; for Jesus Himself 
recognizes these men as His friends, and the Spirit 
of Christ has made honorable mention of their 
faith and love. And yet these men sinned; sinned 
after conversion ; sinned most grievously. Noah 
was guilty of drunkenness, Abraham of falsehood, 
Jacob of deceit, David of adultery and murder, 
Peter of denial and cursing. The Great Teacher 
has recorded the sins of His saints; and these sins 
are a grief to the righteous and a stumbling-block 
to the wicked. And yet it is manifest that the 
mere record of the fact does not express Christ's 
approbation of the sin. 

Again : side by side with the recorded facts is 
Christ's Law forbidding these very sins of which 
His saints were guilty. And again : side by side 
with the sins is the punishment inflicted by Christ 
upon the saints for these very sins. And yet 
more: side by side with the record of the sins is 
the repentance of these holy men, bitter and godly 
sorrow, and hearty turning from sin unto God. 
In the light of these truths there is no occasion 
for any honest soul to stumble at this Record. 

5* 



54 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

For there is, ist. The Law which condemns the 
sin. 2d. The punishment for the sin. 3d. The 
repentance and confession of the saints. The very 
Record is itself a fearful punishment, and at the 
same time a solemn warning. Let him that thinketh 
he standeth take heed lest he fall. 

Another element, in the Teachings of Christ, 
deserves special notice in this connection, viz., 
The Imprecatory portions of the Scripture : and 
the question must be answered, Does Christ make 
Himself responsible for, and approve those passages 
of the Sacred Scriptures, in which His servants 
express a feeling of solemn and holy joy at the 
destruction of the wicked ; and even pray the 
Almighty to overthrow and destroy the enemies 
of Christ and His kingdom ? Do the Impreca- 
tory portions of the Bible express the Teachings 
of Christ, or are they the utterances of cruel and 
bloody men, in a dark and savage age, and at vari- 
ance with Christ's own Words ? On this point I 
venture two remarks : 

ist. These Imprecations are not the expression 
of private and personal hatred. David is an indi- 
vidual, but he is also king: he is a man, but he is 
also the Representative of God. He is a Typical 
king, typical of Christ and His kingdom. He is 
the visible Representative on earth of Christ, the 
real king of Israel. His imprecations are not ex- 
pressive of his private feelings as a man, as an 



The Extent of Christ s Teachings. 55 

individual, but of his public and typical character 
and office. He, in this capacity, prays for and 
desires the destruction of the enemies of Christ 
and His kingdom, — the enemies of God, and Truth, 
and Holiness. A feeling that finds expression in 
the prayer of every holy man when he prays God 
"to suppress evil and immorality, and put to con- 
fusion all workers of iniquity." Let any Christian 
analyze his prayers in this particular, and he will 
find that, if not in the same words, he does pray 
for the same thing, viz., that all enemies may be 
subdued under Christ, and that His kingdom may 
come in spite of all opposition of the Devil and 
wicked men. The imprecatory prayers of the Old 
Testament saints are for the overthrow and de- 
struction, not of their private and personal enemies, 
but of those who are the enemies of God, and who 
set themselves to resist, and defy, and destroy the 
kingdom of Christ : and this feeling is not wicked, 
but righteous and holy. 

2d. This feeling, imprecatory, vindictive, or what- 
ever else you may choose to call it, can and does 
coexist with the most ardent love for the sinner, 
and the most intense desire for his salvation : and 
just here is the true and highest solution of this 
difficulty. 

In the Highest and Holiest of all beings, God 
Himself, there is perfect hatred of sin, and the 
solemn purpose to punish with eternal death all 



56 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

who will not submit to Christ, — and this hatred and 
wrath of God is revealed, and He declares, Ven- 
geance is mine, I will repay. Nay more, God acts 
out this feeling, — He does punish with everlasting 
destruction the Devil and his angels and all finally 
impenitent men. And thus we have on the part 
of God the hatred, the purpose to punish, and the 
act of punishment itself: and yet all of this coexists 
at the same time, side by side in the heart of God, 
with the tenderest love for the sinner : God so loves 
the world that He gives His only-begotten Son to 
die for sinful men, for His enemies. And Christ 
Himself, as He gazes upon Jerusalem, given over 
to her fearful doom, exclaims, with tears of genuine 
sorrow streaming from His eyes, O Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy 
children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
brood under her wings, and ye would not! 

How these two feelings can coexist in the same 
heart at the same moment we do not pretend to 
be able to say. Not the philosophy , but the fact 
of their coexistence concerns us ; and of this fact 
there is no shadow of doubt. 

Now this same feeling, to a greater or less degree, 
is found in the heart of every child of God, whether 
under the Old or New Dispensation. Every saint 
does desire that all men should be saved and come 
to the knowledge of the Truth. He desires the 
salvation even of the chief of sinners. And at 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 57 

the same time he desires and prays " that the king- 
dom of Christ may be built up upon the ruins of 
Satan and His kingdom." And so when Jehovah 
caused the waters of the Red Sea to flow back 
upon Pharaoh and his hosts, and when there was 
a wholesale destruction of the enemies of Christ 
and His people, we find Moses and all the chil- 
dren of Israel singing with joy unto the Lord, 
who had triumphed gloriously, who had cast both 
horse and rider into the sea. Thy right hand, O 
Lord, is become glorious in power; Thy right 
hand hath dashed in pieces the enemy. So David, 
in the Psalms, gives expression to the same holy 
joy; and Christ Himself, in the Parable, com- 
mands that His enemies who would not that He 
should reign over them be brought and slain 
before His face. 

In the Prophecy of Jeremiah the Heavens and 
earth are called upon to rejoice over the utter de- 
struction of Babylon, the enemy of the kingdom 
of God. And in the Revelation, when Babylon the 
great and wicked city is consumed by the wrath 
of an avenging God, all Heaven and earth, saints 
and angels, Apostles and Prophets, are called upon 
by Christ to rejoice over her. The imprecatory 
Psalms are, therefore, not exceptional and isolated 
expressions of holy indignation against the enemies 
of God and man, but are in full accord with, and 
form part of, the Teachings of the Lord Jesus with 
c* 



5 8 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

reference to all the finally impenitent enemies of 
His kingdom. 

Almost every child of God has witnessed some 
signal display of the power and grace of God in 
the salvation of sinners. Sometimes a church is 
revived, and the whole community is moved by the 
Holy Ghost, — but there is some prominent person 
who deliberately sets himself against the Spirit of 
God. Christians labor and pray for his salvation ; 
he is warned and entreated ; but all this only serves 
to develop his bitter and malignant hatred of God ; 
he tries himself to see how wicked and blasphemous 
he can be, and does all in his power to ruin other 
souls, and hinder the work of the Holy Ghost 
Who will presume to say that when under such 
circumstances Christians pray that this wicked 
enemy of God and man may be taken out of the 
way, and destroyed, the prayer is wicked and 
malignant? 

No teachable student of Christ's Word need 
stumble either at the sins of the saints or the im- 
precatory portions of the Scripture; when properly 
understood and interpreted, they afford new evi- 
dence that He is the Divine, the Infallible Teacher 
of men. 

All of the Facts recorded in the Bible have 
bearings upon the salvation of men, and upon the 
entire system of doctrinal truth revealed by Christ 
as the Prophet of God. No one Fact recorded in 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 59 

this Word is trivial or unimportant: each one has 
its appropriate place, purpose, and use. The names 
and ages of the Antediluvian patriarchs enable us 
to determine the chronology of the world ; the 
Lifting up of a brazen serpent by Moses is a Type 
of the sacrificial death of the Son of God : and 
the Swallowing of the Prophet Jonah by a fish is a 
sign and type of the Son of Man. 

In short, it is upon this solid foundation of Facts, 
both natural and supernatural, that the entire struc- 
ture of ethical and doctrinal truth, revealed by 
Jesus of Nazareth, rests; remove the foundation of 
Facts, and the superstructure of Doctrine and Duty 
falls to the ground. It is precisely this element of 
Facts that distinguishes the religion taught by 
Jesus Christ from all other forms of religion among 
men : and because of this element, His Religion is 
neither theory, nor legend, nor myth, nor supersti- 
tion, nor spiritualism, — it is a Religion of Fact; 
and upon two great facts, viz., the Death and Resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ, the whole Gospel absolutely 
rests. 

Hence the shrewdest and ablest enemies of the 
Christian religion have always assailed the authen- 
ticity of the facts recorded in the Word. Especially 
do they deny the supernatural facts, — the Deluge, 
the Confusion of tongues, the Passage of the Red 
Sea, the Sun and Moon standing still, and all the 
miracles of our Lord and His Apostles, — and then 



6o Christ y the Teacher of Men. 

they reject the great fact of the Resurrection of 
Jesus, and thus seek to reduce His religion to a 
merely natural thing, and Christ Himself to the 
place of a merely human teacher. And if the 
supernatural facts of Scripture are not true then 
these men are right, and Christ and His teachings 
are of no more value than any other man and his 
opinions. But all the facts recorded in Scripture 
are true, and Christ the Infallible Teacher makes 
Himself responsible for them all. 

Consider how immense the number and how 
great the variety of Facts here recorded. Facts 
concerning God and men, Angels and Devils; 
facts in Nature, Providence, and Grace ; facts con- 
cerning races, nations, and governments ; facts in 
every department of the material world, and in the 
wide domain of the supernatural. All of these 
facts come down to us attested by the Omniscience 
and Authority of the Son of God, who is never 
mistaken and who cannot lie. Every fact of Scrip- 
ture is important, and every one is precious; they 
are all recorded by the direction of Jesus Christ; 
are all considered by Him as necessary for our 
comfort and salvation. We cannot, we dare not, 
yield a single fact recorded in His Word ; for to do 
this is practically to deny His Omniscience and 
Infallibility as our Divine Prophet; for this is His 
Word, these are His Teachings ; all is given by 
Inspiration of His Spirit ; and He is just as respon- 



The Extent of Chris? s Teachings. 61 

V 

sible for the statement that the fish swallowed 
Jonah as for that one that God is Holy, and that 
the pure in heart shall see Him. If we are at lib- 
erty to reject any one fact, then we have the same 
liberty to reject all; for all of them equally and 
alike rest upon His authoritative and infallible 
Teaching. 

The Doctrines of Christ. 

The word "doctrine" because of a false meaning 
attached to it, has fallen into disuse and disfavor. 
Many have confounded "doctrinal preaching" with 
polemical preaching, and hence they suppose that 
a sermon on Doctrine must of necessity be an 
assault upon views held by others. This is very 
far from the truth ; for a doctrine is simply a truth. 
By the Doctrines of Christ we understand His 
statements of Divine Truth. Christ records facts; 
He reveals Truth. And the Doctrines revealed by 
Christ grow out of the Facts which He has left on 
Record. 

The Death of Jesus of Nazareth is a physical 
and historic fact ; Salvation by Faith in that Death 
as a sacrifice for Sin is a Doctrine. The Doctrine 
of Salvation rests upon the physical fact of the 
death of Christ; if He did not die for sin, then 
there is of course no doctrine of Salvation through 
Faith in His blood. 

Nearly all of the Doctrines of Christ are so in- 
woven with the Facts of Scripture that it is impos- 

6 



62 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

sible to separate them. Taking Christ Himself as 
the sum of all Christian Doctrine, it is evident 
that here everything depends upon certain facts. 
His Incarnation, His Death, and His Resurrection 
are Facts, and the more carefully one studies the 
Word of Christ the more clearly does he perceive 
that the Facts of Scripture are indispensable to the 
Doctrines. 

The Doctrinal System of Jesus Christ embraces 
in its infinite sweep and compass the entire Uni- 
verse. In His Word He develops a complete and 
perfect Doctrine concerning God. As one with 
the august Father, He comes to reveal to man 
the "Unknown God." His threefold definition of 
Deity, viz., God is a Spirit; God is Light; God is 
Love, affords the basis of an accurate and exhaust- 
ive classification of the Being and Nature of God. 
When we add to this, His own statement, He that 
hath seen Me hath seen the Father also ; and then 
add to this, the Teaching of the Holy Ghost, whom 
Jesus sent as an Abiding Indweller in the human 
soul, we have a perfect revelation of God. 

Nor is His Doctrine of man any less clear and 
complete; a doctrine, too, which meets and solves 
all the strange, dark, terrible problems of human 
existence. Man's origin, primeval estate of holi- 
ness, fall, the curse, regeneration, justification, 
sanctification, and glorification. All that man was, 
and is, and will be, is revealed with the clearness 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 63 

of light by Him who is no less the Son of Man 
than He is the Son of God. 

This Doctrinal System of Christ reveals a vast 
world of spiritual beings, order after order, rank 
after rank, whose number no human Arithmetic 
can calculate, who touch our world and destiny on 
every side, yet invisible to us ; their origin, influ- 
ence, and destiny. And then the Infinite Fullness 
of knowledge of this Divine Teacher is projected 
forward upon the prophetic page, and the issues of 
all things, Death, Resurrection, Judgment, Heaven, 
and Hell, are made to gleam before our startled 
gaze as with the awful Light of Eternity. 

It is impossible, in this chapter, to do more than 
merely sketch the bare outline of the Doctrines 
contained in the Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, 
the Prophet of God. 

The Duties enjoined by Christ are connected 
directly and indissolubly with the Doctrines taught 
by Him. Truth is in order to godliness, and all 
Christian Duty is the fruit of Christian Doctrine. 
The Scriptures uniformly observed this order: 
first, the Doctrine is stated, then the Duty is en- 
joined. Hence, too, it is that there is no such 
thing as profitable " practical" preaching apart from 
Doctrinal preaching. Christ and the Apostles 
were eminently doctrinal preachers. 

Christ not only taught all that we are to believe 
concerning God, but also what Duties God requires 



64 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

of man. And how vast and comprehensive are the 
Duties commanded by this Divine Teacher ! There 
is our duty to God, as Creator, Governor, Pre- 
server, Benefactor, Redeemer, and Judge, to love 
Him with all of our mind, heart, soul, and strength. 
Then there is our duty to our fellow-man, to love 
him as ourselves. 

Then the Duties we owe to the Civil Govern- 
ment, to Society, to our Families, to our superiors 
and inferiors ; every duty that we owe to any 
human being in any and every relation we can 
occupy ; all of these are made perfectly plain to 
us by this Prophet anointed of God. If nothing 
of Christ's teachings remained but the Duties en- 
joined, by Him, the world would still ask, Whence 
hath this man this wisdom ? 

How vast in extent, then, are these Instructions 
of our Divine Teacher! How Infinite His knowl- 
edge thus to .comprehend in one small volume this 
record of Facts, this system of Doctrine, this code 
of Duties; Facts so important, Doctrines so won- 
derful, Duties so beneficent ! 

And how blessed the truth that, amid the din, con- 
fusion, and uncertainty of earth and earthly teachers 
and teaching, we can turn to One with the assured 
certainty that all that He teaches is true, absolutely 
true; that He is Himself the Incarnate Truth; 
that we have a more sure Word of Teaching 
whereunto we do well that we take heed as unto 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 65 

a Light that shineth in a dark place until the Day- 
dawn and the Day Star arise in our hearts ! Nay, 
this is Life eternal, to know Thee, the only True 
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent ! 

Facts and Doctrines as related to Christian Life. 

Attention has been incidentally directed to this 
subject, but its importance demands a somewhat 
fuller treatment. 

The remark is often made, sometimes even by 
good men, " The Facts and Doctrines of the Bible 
are of small value; what we want is Christ Him- 
self; not what Christ taught, but the Living Christ 
Himself." 

And thus along with the precious truth of a 
Personal Saviour much error is also conveyed. 
For how shall men believe in Him of whom they 
have not heard ? Faith cometh by hearing, and 
hearing by the Word of God. Apart from the 
Facts and Doctrines of the Scriptures, we know 
absolutely nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ; and 
to talk, therefore, of having the Living Christ, and 
caring nothing for the Truths which reveal Him, 
is simply nonsense. We can only know Him as 
He reveals Himself; and He reveals Himself in the 
Facts and Doctrines of the Bible; hence to know 
Him, we must know these facts and doctrines. 
Jesus Himself most beautifully and clearly illus- 
trates this Truth. In one of His conversations 

6* 



66 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

with His disciples He said, Take heed and beware 
of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees : 
and when His Disciples fail to comprehend His 
meaning, He adds, How is it that ye do not under- 
stand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, 
that ye should beware of the leaven of the Phari- 
sees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they 
how that He bade them beware of the doctrine of 
the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 

Leaven has an active working force or principle 
which changes the character of the entire lump of 
meal or flour until the mass becomes pervaded 
with the leaven. So the Facts and Doctrines 
taught by Christ have a living force, an active 
working principle, which changes the character 
of every heart into which they are cast. Christ's 
Word sanctifies, makes holy, because His Word 
is Truth. Every man's character and conduct is 
determined by the Facts and Doctrines he believes. 
What is in the heart will come out in the life. 
As a man thinketh so is he. We are what we think, 
we are what we believe. 

Paul believed the facts of the Old Testament 
Scriptures and the doctrinal truths revealed to 
him by Jesus Christ, and the most casual reader 
of his life and epistles can see how this belief de- 
termined all that he said and did. Take these 
away from Saul of Tarsus, and the whole current 
of his life is changed. Remove from his conscious- 



The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 6? 

ness the one fact that the Risen Jesus appeared to 
him, and who does not see that the mighty moving 
force of all his activities is gone, and that Paul the 
Apostle has ceased to exist ? The relation which 
the seal bears to the soft wax, and the impression 
made upon it, is not more intimate than that which 
Christian Doctrine bears to Christian Life. With- 
out Christian Facts and Doctrines there is no such 
thing as Christian Life. And those men who are 
ever crying, Give us Christ Himself, and ignoring 
or denying His Facts and Doctrines, are doing 
more to hinder the progress of the Gospel than all 
of His open and avowed enemies combined. 

When men, professing to love and honor the 
Lord Jesus, speak lightly and disparagingly of the 
Facts of His Word and the Truths of His Revel- 
ation, they do thereby cast dishonor upon His 
Prophetical office, and show that they have not 
received Him as an Infallible and authoritative 
Teacher sent from God. 

Hundreds delude themselves with the specious 
but false saying, " It makes no difference what a 
man believes, provided he is honest and sincere in 
that belief." This is to destroy utterly the funda- 
mental distinction between Truth and Falsehood, 
and the very foundation of all moral obligation. 
If this were true, then the more sincerely a man 
received, and the more tenaciously he held, and 
the more zealously he propagated a lie, the more 



68 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

praiseworthy he would be, and the more right- 
eously entitled to a reward. It makes all the dif- 
ference that there is between Heaven and Hell 
whether we receive or reject the Doctrines of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The man who eats arsenic, 
honestly and sincerely believing it to be powdered 
white sugar, does not, because of his sincerity, fail 
to die. No amount of honest sincerity of heart 
will stay the operation of Law, whether in the 
physical or spiritual world. 

If men receive the Teachings of Christ in their 
hearts, they will practice them in their lives. Nor 
is there any strong and symmetrical Christian Life 
apart from the cordial acceptance of all the Truths 
taught by This Prophet of God. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHRIST, THE COVENANT PROPHET. 

Men ought to remember that Jesus of Nazareth, 
who is called the Christ, either was all that He 
claimed to be, or that He was an Impostor and 
Blasphemer. 

Unless He was in very deed and truth the co- 
equal and co-eternal Son of the Living God, He 



Christ, the Covenant Prophet. 69 

was guilty of nothing less than blasphemy when 
He claimed perfect equality with the august 
Father ; and the sentence of the Jewish Sanhe- 
drim, adjudging Him guilty of that crime, was a 
true and righteous verdict. If He was not the 
king of Truth, sent of God to establish in this 
world a spiritual kingdom, then He was a rival of 
Caesar, and justly chargeable with sedition and 
treason. 

If Christ did not speak the Truth, He was defi- 
cient in one of the essential elements of goodness; 
and unless men are willing to accept as true all 
the claims put forth by Jesus of Nazareth, they 
cannot call Him even a good man, for a good man 
will not assert false claims. 

It is, therefore, the perfection of absurdity for 
men to affirm in one breath that Jesus was a true 
and good man, and then in the next deny His own 
claims as the Son of God ; for if what He says is 
true, then He is the Son of God, the Saviour of 
men ; and if what He says is false, then He is not 
a true and good man. 

The wise members of the Highest Tribunal of 
the Jewish people well understood this question, — 
they knew that they must accept Him as their 
King and Messiah; or if He was not this, it was 
their duty to put Him to death as an Impostor 
and Blasphemer. And, in fact, this was what they 
continually charged upon Him; that He being a 



yo Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

man made Himself God. His Wisdom and His 
Works confounded them, and as they would not 
believe that these were of God, they charged that 
He was in league with Baalzebub, the Prince of 
Devils, and hence they were logically shut up to 
the sentence which consigned Him to the Cross. 

The old issue, so clearly and sharply defined in 
the days when Jesus was on earth, is still the living 
issue of our day, — for every man there is but one 
of two courses : either to accept Jesus Christ in 
all the offices which He claimed for Himself as 
Prophet, Priest, and King, or else to reject Him 
altogether, as an Impostor and Blasphemer. Here, 
there is no middle path ; either Christ was altogether 
true or altogether false : either the Son of God or 
the wickedest of men. He knew fully the mean- 
ing of all that He said, and understood clearly all 
that He claimed; if what He said was not true, 
and if his claims were false, then he was guilty of 
the most heinous of sins ; and deserves the repro- 
bation of all good men. If not the Son of God, 
then He must have been the Son of the Devil, 
the Father of Lies. It is to be regretted that this 
issue is not more frequently and intensely pressed 
upon the minds and hearts of the men of our day. 
If Christ is what He claims to be, then it is the 
immediate urgent paramount duty of every man to 
submit to Him ; if He is not, then it is equally the 
duty of every man to join in the cry, Away with 



Christ \ the Covenant Prophet. ji 

such a fellow from the earth; He ought to die; 
crucify Him ! 

During His visit to Jerusalem, at the Feast of 
Dedication, the winter before His crucifixion, and 
also at the Passover in the spring, He asserted in 
the most unmistakable manner His Divine Son- 
ship and equality with the Father: Before Abraham 
was, I Am : He that hath seen Me hath seen the 
Father also: if ye had known Me, ye should have 
known my Father also. I and my Father are One. 
He further states, I proceeded forth and came from 
God, neither came I of myself, but He sent me. 
Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father 
said .unto Me, so I speak. For I have given unto 
them the Words which Thou gavest Me ; and they 
have known surely that I came out from Thee; 
and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. 

He claims to be a Teacher sent from God ; to 
have a Divine commission; and to bring a Divine 
Message to men ; and that He was Divinely author- 
ized to say all that He did say; that all of His 
Words had been given to Him by the Father, and 
all were alike True and Divine. 

He declares, As my Father hath taught Me, I 
speak these things : I have not spoken of myself, 
but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a com- 
mandment what I should say and what I should 
speak : I speak to the world those things which I 
have heard of Him : the Words that I speak unto 



72 Clirist, the Teacher of Men. 

you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that 
dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works : all things 
that I have heard of my Father, I have made 
known unto you. 

These Words reveal the fact that Jesus Christ was 
not a self-appointed Teacher of men ; He did not 
take this office upon Himself, uncalled of God ; 
He did not bring to men a message unauthorized 
by God; He did not offer terms of salvation which 
His Father in Heaven might not approve. He was 
Divinely appointed and Divinely authorized to 
teach men the whole will of God unto salvation. 

If two nations were at hostility, and a citizen 
should come from one to the other with a view to 
a reconciliation, one of the very first questions 
would be, Is. he authorized by the king to treat 
with us? This citizen might be wise, truthful, and 
capable ; he might be able to represent correctly 
the precise state of feeling in his own country; he 
might suggest terms of peace eminently just and 
honorable, — nay, more, he might be the son of 
the king, and possessed of all possible excellencies 
and virtues ; yet if he came uncommissioned by 
his king, unauthorized by his sovereign, it is per- 
fectly manifest that terms of adjustment could not 
be definitely determined. His message cannot be 
received unless it be authorized by the king. 

So a very proper question to be asked concern- 
ing Jesus Christ is, — Does He come from God as 



Christ, the Covenant Prophet. 73 

an authorized Teacher of men ? Has God called 
and commissioned Him to teach? Is His Message 
Divine ? and will God approve the terms of salva- 
tion offered by Him? Unless God has appointed 
Him to this office, He dares not speak in That 
Name to men. The High- Priest who acted for 
men in things pertaining to God, did not take the 
office upon Himself, but was called of God, as was 
Aaron : so the Teacher who speaks for God to 
men must be called and authorized of God. And 
this fact is repeatedly stated in the New Testament 
concerning the Prophetical office of Christ, — the 
people were astonished at his Doctrine, — more cor- 
rectly rendered, Teaching, — for He taught them as 
one having authority, and not as the scribes. Christ 
never speaks except with Divine authority. He 
does not plead, nor beseech, nor exhort, nor argue ; 
but with an air of conscious authority, and with 
all the dignity of Deity itself, He says, Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, — He that hath ears to hear, 
let him hear. 

He never indulges in speculations or conjectures 
or theories, — never gives advice, never persuades, 
never appeals to the wise and great of this earth ; 
all that He says is stamped with Divine authority; 
The words that I speak unto you, they are Truth 
and they are Life; for they are not Mine, but His 
that sent Me. To this end was I born, and for 
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear 
i) 7 



74 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

witness unto the Truth. He that sent Me is with 
Me ; the Father hath not left me alone, for I do 
always those things that please Him. He is at all 
times profoundly conscious that His Father God 
has called and qualified and authorized Him to 
speak to men, and that His Father is always pres- 
ent with Him. 

Nothing gives to a man such power over his 
fellow-men as the unwavering belief that He is 
called and commissioned of God to say and to 
do; to teach and to act: and without this faith, no 
great work was ever wrought among men. When 
man is conscious that the Divine Presence goes 
with Him, then is he in very deed a man of power, 
among his fellow-mortals. 

Martin Luther believed himself to be an instru- 
ment chosen of God to reform a corrupt church, 
and to correct the abuses of the Papal Hierarchy ; 
and though Devils thicker than tiles upon the 
housetops opposed his way, he marched resolutely 
forward in the Divinely-appointed path of duty ; 
and the entire Priesthood of an apostate church 
quailed before the face of one God-anointed man. 

George Whitefield received a call and commis- 
sion from the Lord to preach the Gospel of His 
Grace to men ; and strong in the might of this 
call, he moved the masses, even as the leaves of 
the forest are swept and swayed by the breath of 
some mighty wind. 



Christ, the Covenant Prophet. 75 

D. L. Moody, girded with Divine strength, so 
proclaims the Message given him by His Risen 
Redeemer, that all England and Scotland are moved 
at his presence. It is this Divine call that makes 
even the weak things of this world so mighty, en- 
abling one man to chase a thousand, and two to put 
ten thousand to flight. It was this that enabled 
Moses, the servant of the Lord, to do what no 
other mortal has ever done. 

The certainty of His Divine call, and the Pres- 
ence of His Father, girded and sustained the Lord 
Jesus Christ during all the days of His public 
ministry on earth. In all that He said and did, He 
showed to the world that He was Divinely called 
and authorized, and hence he always spake and 
acted as one having authority and not as the 
scribes. 

Fifteen hundred years before Jesus was born, 
Moses told the children of Israel that God would 
raise up from among them a Prophet, whom they 
should hear in all things ; and after the death and 
resurrection of Jesus, Peter quotes these words of 
Moses, and applies them expressly to Jesus of 
Nazareth. He is then The Teacher raised up by 
God Himself to make known His Will and reveal 
Him to men, and He speaks always with Infinite 
knowledge and with Divine authority. 

This leads to the remark that Jesus Christ is 
Teacher under, and in accordance with, a Cove- 



?6 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

nant or formal agreement between the Three Di- 
vine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The 
Teaching of this Prophet is in order to the salvation 
of sinners; the gathering into one kingdom all the 
Elect of God; and the final and complete purifica- 
tion of the Church, the Bride of the Lamb, — and all 
of these are the results of that Eternal Covenant 
of Love and Mercy, called the Covenant of Grace. 
Christ reveals the whole will of God unto salvation 
by revealing all the provisions of that Covenant. 
He is Prophet of the Covenant. All of His Teach- 
ings are founded upon and are limited by that. 
Apart from the Covenant, He has no instructions 
of any sort for men. To make known the pro- 
visions of that Covenant, to reveal the mind and 
heart of the Divine Persons who were parties to it, 
and to apply the Grace contained in it, to all those 
given Him by the Father, is His glorious Media- 
torial work, which, as Prophet, Priest, and King, 
He performs. Possessed of Infinite knowledge 
Himself, He does not come to teach all knowledge, 
but only that which is unto the salvation contained 
in the Covenant. To reveal the Covenant, the God 
of the Covenant and the Grace of the Covenant, 
is the sum and the substance of His Prophetical 
Instructions. 

The Teachings of Christ, like all the other parts 
of His work, were eternally arranged and ordered. 
His Teachings are not adapted to the various ex- 



Christ, the Covenant Prophet. J? 

igencies of the race as they arise, but were agreed 
upon and ordained long before Jesus of Nazareth 
entered upon His public ministry. 

As the wise master-builder makes a complete 
plan of the entire edifice he is about to erect 
before the work has commenced, so the Maker 
and Builder of the Heavenly City, the New Jeru- 
salem, had prepared all the details of His work 
long ages before the first lively stone was polished 
for the Building. Christ, as Prophet of the Cove- 
nant, comes to unfold the Divine Plan eternally 
formed. Apart from that Covenant there is no 
salvation, and therefore no Prophet to reveal any 
will of God unto any human salvation. 

" Christ executeth the office of a Prophet in His 
revealing to the church in all ages, by His Spirit 
and Word, in divers ways of administration, the 
whole will of God in all things concerning their 
edification and salvation." 

But this salvation grounds itself in the Covenant 
of grace ; nay, it is but the application to man of 
the Covenant, and the Covenant is itself the whole 
will of God unto salvation. Outside of, and apart 
from, this Covenant, God has no will unto any 
man's salvation. If not saved under and through 
this Covenant, man is hopelessly lost. 

Hence the Prophet who reveals the whole will 
of God unto salvation, reveals the entire provisions 
of this Covenant, and hence of necessity His Mes- 



78 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

sage is absolutely conditioned and limited by the 
nature and terms of the Covenant. 

The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, 
for both and for all of which Jesus makes Himself 
personally responsible, must, therefore, be inter- 
preted as the Book of the Covenant. The Teach- 
ings of the Covenant Prophet are contained in the 
Book of the Covenant, in its Facts, its Doctrines, 
and its Duties. All is given by inspiration of the 
Spirit of Christ, all is a Testimony to Him. 

If called upon for the proof of any such Cove- 
nant, the answer is obvious, The ivhole Bible is filled 
with this doctrine. Christ is everywhere set forth 
as the Mediator of this Covenant, as the Executor 
of its provisions. The crowning ordinance of the 
kingdom, gathered by Him through the Truth, is, 
This Cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Priest 
of the Covenant, He seals it with His own precious 
Blood ; King of the Covenant, He receives His 
Bride, the Church, as a Covenant Gift from His 
Heavenly Father; Prophet of the Covenant, He 
reveals its Truth, to the salvation of His- Elect 
People. Outside of this Covenant, He is neither 
Priest, nor King, nor Prophet; and apart from 
this, He has neither worshipers, nor subjects, nor 
disciples. 

The whole efficacy of His Teaching, as Prophet 
sent of God, depends absolutely upon the formal 
stipulations of this Covenant, so that His People 



Christ, the Covenant Prophet. 79 

are made willing in the day of God's Power. All 
given Him by the Father do come unto Him, and 
the word spoken cannot and does not return unto 
Him void, but does accomplish that which He 
pleases, and does prosper in the thing whereto He 
sends it. Every one who is of God and of the 
Truth, hears the word of the Prophet, rests upon 
the sacrifice of the Priest, and wears the yoke of 
the King, and thus the Covenant people are re- 
deemed, taught, and governed. The Gospel call 
of this Divine Teacher is effectual \.o salvation, be- 
cause there is a Covenant, and Covenant Promises, 
and Covenant Power. 

A man may believe that Christ is an authorized 
Prophet, and that He brings to men a Message 
directly from God, and yet he may not believe the 
message itself. Believing in the Divine Commis- 
sion of the Prophet, he may, nevertheless, not be- 
lieve what the Prophet says. Naaman believed 
that Elisha was the Prophet of God, but he did 
not believe that dipping seven times in the river 
Jordan would cure him of his leprosy. Many men 
do believe that the Bible is a Book from God, and 
are yet unwilling to receive the Doctrines and 
Truths which it contains. They say that they 
believe the Bible, meaning by this that they be- 
lieve this Book to be a Divine Revelation ; but 
there are many things contained in this Word 
which they do not believe. They know that God 



80 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

has said, The wicked shall be turned into Hell ; 
but they do not believe that this saying is true. 
They know that He said, He that believeth not 
shall be damned; but they do not believe that all 
unbelievers shall perish. 

We often hear this expression : " I believe that 
Mr. A. said that he would do a certain thing, but 
I do not believe that he will do what he says." 
So men may, and do, believe that Christ is an 
authorized Teacher, that He brings a Divine Mes- 
sage, that this Message is contained in the Bible ; 
and yet they do not believe the Message itself, nor 
trust the Prophet who delivers it. 

It is manifest, that if the words of Christ can be 
trusted, He occupies a position wholly different 
from that of any other Teacher who has ever ap- 
peared among men. For He is not a self-appointed 
Instructor, but called to His office by God Him- 
self, and Divinely authorized to speak for God to 
men. He is the Prophet of an eternal Covenant 
of Grace, and appears on earth to reveal the salva- 
tion therein provided to lost and guilty man. 

That God, who at sundry times and in divers 
manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by 
the Prophets, is in these last days speaking unto us 
by His Son, the Prophet of the Covenant, and the 
Heir of all things. The commandment which He 
received of the Father, and which He makes 
known to us, is Everlasting Life. For this is His 



Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 8[ 

testimony that God hath given to us Eternal Life, 
and this Life is in His Son. Not to believe the 
words of this Divinely-ordained Prophet is to 
make God a liar, and thus to be guilty of the most 
heinous and damning of all sins, the Sin of Un- 
belief. The refusal or neglect to believe the Mes- 
sage of God as delivered to us by this Covenant 
Prophet is a direct and gross insult offered to the 
Most High, and every soul who will not hear this 
Prophet shall most assuredly be cut off. See that 
ye refuse not Him that speaketh. 



CHAPTER V. 

CHRIST TEACHING THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST. 

A point has now been reached in this discussion 
when the mind of the reader must be directed to 
another Divine Person, the Holy Ghost, or the 
Spirit. 

The most careless student of the words of Christ 
cannot fail to have noticed the frequency with which 
He speaks of the Spirit. He calls Him the Spirit 
of Truth, the Comforter, the Paraclete; always 
speaks of Him, not as an Emanation, an Influence, 
a mere impersonal Force, but as a Person; One 

D* 



82 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

who thinks, and feels, and wills ; One who teaches, 
enlightens, comforts, and sanctifies ; One who can 
be grieved and resisted ; One who exercises all the 
faculties, and puts forth all the activities, and is 
possessed of all the properties essential to a Person ; 
One to whom Personality, not Bodily Presence, in 
its highest sense, belongs. This Personal Spirit is 
most intimately connected with Christ, and is 
directly related to all of His work, and especially 
to his office and work as a Teacher of men. 

In the Scriptures, it is recorded that this Spirit 
came upon men, influenced their minds, controlled 
their thoughts, inspired their words, directed their 
pens. It was this Spirit in the Prophets who testi- 
fied beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the 
glory that should follow : and the holy men of 
God spake as they were moved by this Holy Ghost. 

Christ, speaking through the mouth of Isaiah, 
says of Himself, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon 
Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach 
good tidings unto the meek ; He hath sent Me to 
bind up the broken-hearted. Ezekiel says, The 
Hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me 
out in the Spirit of the Lord. When Philip and 
the Eunuch came up from the water, the Spirit of 
the Lord caught the Evangelist away. While 
Christ w r as with the Disciples, He told them plainly 
that it was expedient for them that He should go 
away, and that after He departed, He would send 



Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 83 

them another Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit 
of Truth; and that this Spirit would bring His 
words to their remembrance, and would guide 
them into all Truth. The Holy Ghost inspired 
the words of the Old Testament Scriptures; He 
came in mighty power upon the Apostles after 
the Ascension of Christ; He brought to their 
memory the words spoken by Christ during His 
personal ministry, and unfolded their meaning; He 
taught them what to write ; He abides in the Word, 
and in the church, and in the heart of each believer, 
and is the Infallible Interpreter of the Teachings 
of the Prophet sent from God. 

It is impossible, therefore, to discuss fully the 
prophetical office of Christ without pointing out the 

Relation which the Spirit bears to the Teachings of 
Jesus of Nazareth. 

According to the Sacred Biographers, the Spirit 
bears a most intimate and peculiar relation to th # e 
human body and soul of the man Christ Jesus; for 
it is true beyond question that Jesus did have a 
"true body and a reasonable soul." 

There was an ancient promise made to Adam 
and Eve that the Seed of the woman should bruise 
the serpent's head ; and that in Him all the nations 
of the earth should be blessed. Isaiah foretold that 
a Virgin should conceive and bear a son. In the 
Gospels written by Matthew and Luke we have 



84 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

a record of the fulfillment of this Promise and 
Prediction. 

When the Fullness of the time had come, the 
Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a Virgin es- 
poused to a man whose name was Joseph : and the 
Angel said, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found 
favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive 
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call 
His name Jesus. 

Mary expressed great surprise at this strange 
announcement, seeing that she was yet unmarried, 
and had never known a man. And the Angel re- 
plied, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and 
the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : 
therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born 
of thee shall be called the Son of God ; for with 
God nothing shall be impossible. 

The power of the Holy Ghost enabled the Virgin 
to conceive, and the same power formed of her sub- 
stance the human soul and body of Jesus ; and 
thus He was born of her without sin. And thus 
the Logos, the Word, the Eternal Son who had 
been in the beginning, and was with God, and who 
was God, become flesh, and dwelt among us, and 
we beheld His glory, the glory of the only-begotten 
of the Father, full of Grace and Truth. 

The child Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, 
and in favor with God and man ; and was a Temple 
in which the Spirit dwelt continually : so that from 



Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 85 

His Birth the Man Christ Jesus was under the 
influence of, and in daily contact with, the Holy 
Ghost. The Spirit bore a relation to the human 
soul and body of Jesus that He has never borne 
to any other human being. 

When His Forerunner John the Baptist inducted 
Jesus publicly into His office as a Teacher sent 
from God, the Holy Spirit descended in bodily 
form like to a Dove and rested upon Him, and He 
was anointed by the Spirit above measure for His 
Mediatorial Work as Prophet, Priest, and King. 
This Spirit was with Jesus as Man in all the days 
of His earthly life; and it was through the Spirit 
that all of His words were spoken and all of His 
works were wrought. 

By the Spirit, He was led up into the wilderness 
to be tempted of the Devil ; when He returned to 
Galilee, it was in the power of the Spirit ; and we 
know that God anointed Him with the Spirit and 
power; and because the Spirit of the Lord was 
upon Him, He preached the Gospel to the poor, and 
proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord. His 
first official teaching was based upon the prophecy 
of Isaiah, beginning, The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
Me, because He hath anointed Me; and then He 
adds, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your 
ears. 

Throughout His entire earthly life the Man 

Jesus was anointed and girded and guided by the 

8 



86 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Spirit; and it was through this Eternal Spirit that 
He performed that great Priestly act, wherein He 
offered Himself without spot or blemish a sacrifice 
to God. 

I attempt no philosophical explanation of how 
these things could be. - Just where and how life 
begins, how it is sustained and strengthened, how 
spirit acts upon spirit, how the Son of God became 
flesh, and how the Holy Ghost dwelt in the man 
Jesus, are mysteries beyond the power of mortal 
gaze. 

The facts themselves are plain and easily 
established ; but how these things are, no mortal 
can tell: a fact is one thing; its philosophical 
and satisfactory explanation something altogether 
different. 

Not only did the Spirit give to the Virgin power 
to conceive the body and soul of Jesus, but His 
Resurrection from the dead is expressly ascribed 
to the same Divine Agent ; He was put to death 
in the flesh, but was quickened by the Spirit, and 
was declared to be the Son of God w r ith power in 
and by His Resurrection from the dead by the 
Spirit of Holiness, or the Holy Spirit. 

The relation, therefore, subsisting between Christ 
and the Spirit is most peculiar and intimate; ex- 
tending to the production of His human soul and 
body, abiding with Him in all of His earthly life, 
enabling Him to offer Himself in sacrifice to God, 



Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 87 

and raising Him from the dead. Hence it would 
be natural to suppose that this Spirit shall occupy 
a prominent place in the Teachings of the God- 
man Christ Jesus. 

We are prepared, therefore, to receive the state- 
ment that Christ spake by the Spirit through the 
Prophets, the Evangelists, and the Apostles; these 
men uttered not their own words, but spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It was the 
Spirit of Christ in them who did testify of His suf- 
ferings and the glory which should follow. In the 
twenty-second chapter of Matthew, Christ says 
that, David by the Spirit called Him Lord, and 
then He quotes the second Psalm, " Jehovah said 
unto Messiah." So that David spake the words 
of God. It is needless, at this point, to raise and 
discuss the question, — Is the Bible true ? The 
single matter insisted on in this connection is, that 
the men who wrote this Book claim to have written 
under the guidance and influence of the Spirit of 
Christ : and Christ is responsible for all that is 
written, because His Spirit inspired it all. It was 
the Omnipresent Spirit of Christ, moving upon the 
minds and hearts of the Holy Prophets of olden 
time, who guided them in the preparation of the 
Books of the Jewish Sacred Scriptures. 

But what is Inspiration, and what do we mean 
when we assert that the men who wrote these 
Books were inspired by the Holy Ghost ? Evi- 



88 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

dently, we can mean nothing less than that these 
words are as much the words of Christ as if He 
had with His own Hand written them. In authority, 
authenticity, and obligation these are all Divine 
words, — the words of the Divine Teacher. They 
do exactly and completely represent the mind and 
will of the Lord Jesus Christ, — so exact is the rep- 
resentation that God Himself cannot make it more 
exact : had the Divine Hand written the Books 
they would not vary one iota from what "Is Writ- 
ten." Inspiration is, therefore, the influence exerted 
by the Holy Spirit upon the writers of the Sacred 
Scriptures whereby they have recorded the Facts, 
revealed the Doctrines, and enjoined the Duties 
precisely as we have the Record in the Scriptures 
of the Old and New Testaments. 

The history of the Creation as given by Moses 
in Genesis is inspired: he records the six days' 
work of Creation from the Divine stand-point; states 
the fact and manner of Creation precisely according 
to the Divine Mind. Had God in Christ written 
the history Himself it would have been precisely 
the very one we now have. Nor do I see why 
Christians should be perplexed, when men living 
thousands of years from the time of the Creation, 
charge that God's account thereof is inaccurate, 
and profess to give one far better than that given 
by the Creator Himself. 

The accounts of the Garden of Eden, the Temp- 



Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 89 

tation, the Fall, the Flood, the Dispersion, the 
Exode, given by the Sacred Writers, are just as 
accurate as if God, with His own Hand, had written 
them. For the Spirit of God directed Holy Men 
to record these Facts exactly as they occurred. 
The difficulty men have is not with the accuracy 
and inspiration of the account given, but with the 
super natural element in the Facts themselves. They 
are unwilling to admit the direct forthputting of 
Divine Power in human history. 

The Holy Spirit guided the Writers to record 
such facts and truths as Christ wished to have re- 
corded, and only such as He wished ; and He fur- 
ther influenced them to write precisely as they did 
write. The Bible is, therefore, the exact represen- 
tation of the mind of the Great Teacher Jesus 
Christ. This Book contains His statement of 
Facts, Doctrines, and Duties: in it, He is teaching 
men the will of God unto salvation. 

The Spirit so moved upon the Sacred Writers 
that their mental and spiritual faculties were, during 
the time of writing, brought into exquisite, exact, 
and complete harmony with the mind and will of 
Jesus Christ: so that what they thought, Christ 
thought; and what they wrote, Christ wrote. 

Only those Facts are left on record that Christ 
willed to have recorded ; and the Record corresponds 
exactly with the occurrences : only those Truths 
are revealed that Christ willed to have revealed ; 

8* 



go Christ y the Teacher of Men. 

and they are recorded exactly as He delivered 
them: only those Duties are commanded which 
Christ enjoined, and they are recorded exactly as 
He commanded. The Facts of Scripture are in- 
spired, the Doctrines are inspired, the Duties are 
inspired: so that the entire Teachings of Christ as 
contained in His Word are inspired. 

But little profit is gained in discussing the 
manner and method whereby this influence of the 
Spirit was exerted upon the minds of the Writers, — 
How influence passes from one spirit to another? — 
the minor question, How does Force act? — are far 
beyond the reach of our present powers. The 
facts are beyond doubt; force does act; spirits do 
influence other spirits ; but how this is done ; the 
manner and method thereof no wisest philosopher 
can tell. 

Much time has been wasted in useless discus- 
sions concerning degrees of inspiration ; the 
member of degrees varying according to the judg- 
ment of each writer : one degree being needful for 
facts, another for doctrine, another for duty. 

Inspiration in each and every case; in facts, doc- 
trines, and duties, is the same in kind and degree, — 
for it is always that influence of the Spirit exerted 
upon the Writers, whereby they made an accurate, 
authentic, and infallible Record of Facts, Doctrines, 
and Duties. The Record contains the whole will 
of Christ unto salvation; and in the very words 



Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 91 

of Christ; and not one single fact, truth, or word 
is superfluous. 

When we examine the substance-matter of 
Christ's Teachings we find great variety : there are 
facts, truths, doctrines, proverbs, songs, epistles, 
biographies, and revelations. We have the words 
and acts, the sayings and doings, of good and bad 
men, of angels and devils, of God and man. But 
in each case the Record is inspired, — facts are re- 
corded as facts; the sins of good men as the sins of 
good men ; lies spoken by the Devil, as lies spoken 
by the Devil. In the account of the Temptation and 
Fall, the Spirit of Christ does not inspire the words 
of the Serpent, " Ye shall not surely die;" but He 
does influence Moses to record the facts, and the 
words of the Devil just as he uttered them, — the 
lie is the Devil's own ; the record of it is infallibly 
inspired by the Spirit of Christ : and in this sense, 
the Bible contains u inspired lies" ; not that the lie 
is inspired or true, but the record thereof is both 
true and inspired. 

The influence of the Spirit upon Moses when he 
records the Temptation is precisely the same in 
kind and degree as when he records the words of 
Jehovah, " I am that I am," — in each case we have, 
through inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, an in- 
fallibly accurate account; in the one of a lie spoken 
by the Devil, in the other of a truth uttered by 
God. It is Christ, the Teacher, by His Spirit, 



92 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

speaking through Moses, and making up the Re- 
cord for all generations. 

If the question be asked, "How can the One 
Spirit of Christ speak thus through Moses, David, 
Isaiah, Malachi, Matthew, Paul, and John, and yet 
each writer preserve his own personal characteristics 
and peculiarities?" the answer shall be given when 
the questioner tells us how each man of numberless 
generations preserves his own distinct individuality, 
when each and all alike live and move and have 
their being in God; when he tells us how each be- 
liever preserves his own distinct, peculiar Christian 
character, when all alike live in Christ, and Christ 
lives in each one; when he tells us how each re- 
generated soul preserves its own peculiar charac- 
teristics, when all are alike recreated by the one 
Divine Spirit. Until the questioner can explain 
the problem of Life in its endless diversities, and 
reveal the mystery of Force and Influence, we 
can well decline any attempt to explain liozv one 
spiritual influence can co-exist with manifold 
diversities of style and speech. 

When we come to the modes of spiritual in- 
fluence, we have reached a point in our investiga- 
tions beyond which we cannot go with either 
safety, profit, or certainty. 

That, influence, whether human, diabolic, angelic, 
or Divine, when exerted by one being upon another, 
does not and cannot destroy personality, individu- 



CI iris t teaching through the Holy Ghost. 93 

ality, or responsibility, is a truth established by the 
universal consciousness; is one of those primal 
intuitions of the race that no sophistry of argu- 
ment can shake. So also it is true that the in- 
fluence of the Spirit does not destroy or impair 
the personal characteristics of the Sacred Writers. 

The intimate relation subsisting between the 
Word of Christ and the Spirit of Christ is pointed 
out with the utmost clearness by the Great Teacher 
Himself. 

Just before His departure from the earth, He 
said plainly to His Disciples, It is expedient for 
you that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Com- 
forter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I 
will send Him unto you : when He is come, He 
will not speak of Himself, but shall take of Mine 
and shew it unto you. He shall testify of Me; He 
shall glorify Me ; He shall bring to your remem- 
brance all things whatsoever I have said unto you. 
And how completely, after the day of Pentecost, 
this Promise was fulfilled, the Gospels, Acts, Epis- 
tles, and Revelation do most abundantly attest. 

After Jesus was glorified, the Spirit came in 
power to the Apostles, and took one, and another, 
and another of the sayings of Christ, and shedding 
Divine Light upon the Truth, enabled the Apostles 
to see it in its fullness and glory, and caused them 
to record it for everlasting instruction. 

Let an incident from the Acts of the Apostles 



94 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

be taken to illustrate this statement. Jesus had 
said, — John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall 
be baptized with the Holy Ghost. 

After the Gentiles had received the Word, and 
had been admitted to the Christian church, Peter 
went up to Jerusalem and told the Apostles of the 
conversion of the Gentiles, and adds, — " While I 
was preaching, the Holy Ghost fell on* them, as on 
us at the beginning; then remembered I the word of 
the Lord, how He said, Ye shall be baptized with 
the Holy Ghost." 

This illustrates the truth that the words of Christ 
were brought to the remembrance of the Apostles 
by the Holy Ghost, and that the Spirit of Christ is 
most intimately connected with the words of Christ. 
Incident after incident could be gathered from the 
New Testament to illustrate this truth, but one is 
sufficient to show the principle involved. 

Not only did the Spirit bring the words of Christ 
to remembrance, unfolding their meaning to the 
Apostles, and inspiring them to record in perma- 
nent form the precious truths of the Gospel, but 
He has adjoined Himself to the Written Word, has 
shrined Himself in the Scriptures, and thus makes 
the Word of God a living, perfect, and infallible 
Testimony of and to the Lord Jesus Christ as the 
Teacher of men and the Revealer of God. As 
Christ said to Philip, " He that hath seen Me, hath 
seen the Father also;" so we can now say, He that 



Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 95 

hath seen the Word, hath seen both the Father 
and the Son. 

Rev. Hugh Martin, of Edinburgh, in his inimi- 
table work," Christ's Presence in Gospel History," 
says, " I believe that this revelation was not designed 
for Philip only, but that it is the heritage of them 
also which shall believe through the Word. But 
if Jesus looketh forth upon me now from their 
Word by His Spirit, the Spirit lighteth up that 
very Word as it has been written, and Jesus thereby 
looking forth exactly, to the very life, as that written 
Word, if I may so say, permits him ; there my 
Beloved — fairer than the sons of men, chiefest am ong 
ten thousand — is to me altogether lovely, and the 
express image of the Father, only if this Word be 
exactly what the Spirit of Christ zvould have, — writ- 
ten as Holy Men of God were moved by the Spirit, 
an inspired record and perfect. 

" I demand its absolute infallibility, in order that 
my Lord be in nothing misrepresented to me. I 
demand that it be a mirror on which no staining 
breath of human imperfection has been permitted to 
pass; that it be a picture without spot, or blemish, 
or any such thing. For now the question of its 
perfection implicates my Lord's perfection. His 
spotlessness is periled on its infallibility. The 
Word must be perfect ; even in all the perfection 
He can give to it; yea, in all the perfection He can 
claim for Himself. It must be an image, as per- 



96 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

feet in its kind, in written words of Jesus, — as Jesus 
is the perfect image in human flesh of the Eternal 
Father." 

If the inspiration of the Word be imperfect, then 
its representation of Christ is imperfect ; and if this 
be imperfect, then God has given us an imperfect 
representation of Himself. 

The Spirit of Christ has so adjoined Himself to 
the Word of Christ ; the Holy Ghost doth so ac- 
company the Teachings of Christ, that He becomes 
to every earnest and sincere student of the Words 
of Christ an Infallible Interpreter. How shall I 
understand the words of the Book unless some one 
shall guide me? was the question of the Eunuch. 
The Holy Ghost shall guide you, is the answer 
of the Teacher Himself. Whosoever will submit 
himself as a little child to the Holy Spirit shall be 
nfallibly guided into the Truth. Nor is there in 
all the universe any Infallible Interpreter of Christ's 
words save the Spirit of Christ : He shall guide 
men into the Truth. The Word of God must, 
therefore, be free to all men, and every man must 
search the Scriptures for himself. 



Christ teaching by Miracles. 97 



CHAPTER VI. 

CHRIST TEACHING BY MIRACLES. 

Nicodemus, the Jewish ruler, who came to Jesus 
by night, said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that thou 
art a Teacher come from God, for no man can do 
these miracles that thou doest, except God be with 
him. 

In this statement, Nicodemus gives expression 
to a belief common to man in every part of the 
earth and every age of the world, viz., that a 
Teacher, claiming to come from God, must authen- 
ticate his Divine mission by supernatural works. 

The world in which man lives is seen and tangi- 
ble; when he opens his eye, he beholds it; when 
he stretches forth his hand, he touches it. 

The Spiritual World is intangible and invisible; 
the mortal hand cannot touch, the mortal eye can- 
not see it. The Seen World is so near, the Unseen 
World so very far away : the one is cognizable by 
the Senses, the other only by Faith. 

When, therefore, a Teacher claims to come from 

the Unseen World, to bring a message from the 

Invisible God, to reveal to man the truths of the 

spiritual realm, it is not so strange that men should 

E 9 



98 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

ask, " Whereby shall we know this? show us a 
sign? authenticate your claims by supernatural 
works wrought in a material realm ; works cogniz- 
able by the senses, by which we have knowledge 
of an external physical world." In every period 
of revelation, from Adam to the Apostle John, 
God, in the authentication and establishment of His 
religion among men, has addressed Himself to this 
element of human nature. 

Christ, as a Teacher come from God, speaking 
by His Spirit, through Patriarchs, Prophets, and 
Apostles, has enabled them to work signs and 
wonders in the material creation, above and beyond 
the power and efficiency of second causes, thereby 
authenticating as Divine the message they delivered. 
Evidences in the material world, in the realm of 
the seen and tangible, evidences cognizable by the 
senses, have been given abundantly ; so that, if 
men will not be convinced by these, neither would 
they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. 

The record of these signs, wonders, works, 
miracles, — for so they are called, — has been made 
in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments 
by Holy Men inspired by the Spirit of Christ. If 
these records are authentic, then we see with the 
eyes, and hear with the ears, and handle with the 
hands of those who witnessed all the wondrous 
works. If the Records are trustworthy, then we 
stand with Moses on the bank of the Nile, and be- 



Christ te ad ting by Miracles. 99 

hold the Divine Power operative upon the forms 
of the material creation ; with the children of Israel 
in the wilderness, we see the quails, the manna, 
and the Pillar of Fire ; with Elijah we see the 
ravens bringing the bread and flesh in the morn- 
ing, and bread and flesh in the evening ; with the 
Apostles we walk with Jesus and hear His words, 
and see Him give sight to the blind, hearing to the 
deaf, speech to the dumb, cleansing to the leper, 
and life to the dead. The senses of these men, 
whereby these phenomena in the material world 
are apprehended, are as reliable as our own, — if, 
therefore, the witness can be relied upon ; if the 
Record is true, then we have all the evidence, so 
far as this particular matter is concerned, that these 
men had. With John we have seen and handled 
the Word of Life ; with Thomas we have seen the 
print of the nails and the spear. What satisfied 
them ought to satisfy us. 

But in no age have men been satisfied with the 
number or the nature of the signs and wonders by 
which Jesus Christ would authenticate His mes- 
sengers. Sign after sign, manifestation after mani- 
festation of Divine Power, authenticating Moses as 
the servant of Christ, was given to Pharaoh, but 
still he refused to believe, because he did not wish 
to let Israel go. When the Son of God was incar- 
nate on this earth, He manifested His Divine Power 
over all forms of the material creation, but the un- 



103 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

believing Jews remained unconvinced, and cried, 
time and again, Show us a sign from Heaven. 

Each new generation of infidels proposes some 
new test, whereby Jesus of Nazareth must vindicate 
His claims as a Teacher come from God. 

The present generation demands some scientific 
test ; some material sign and wonder written in 
the rock leaves of the earth beneath, or upon the 
star depth in the Heavens above. Let all the 
patients in a certain ward of some hospital be re- 
stored to health; or let some dead man rise up out 
of his grave, and come back to life again, and then 
they will believe. As if Jesus Christ had not done 
these things time and again. They have Moses 
and the Prophets, they have the authentic his- 
toric record of these things, and unconvinced by 
these, in vain shall hospital patients be recovered, 
and dead men rise from the grave. This is an 
evil generation ; they seek a sign, and there shall 
no sign be given it but the sign of Jonah the 
Prophet. 

If what has been advanced in this work in respect 
to the "Extent of Chrisfs Teachings" be true ; if 
He makes Himself responsible for all the Facts, 
Doctrines, and Duties of the Scriptures, then it fol- 
lows that all the Miracles of the Scriptures form 
one system, of which Christ is the Author and 
Worker, and that He is as much responsible for 
the Miracles recorded in the Old Testament as for 



Christ teaching by Miracles. ioi 

those of the New. As Prophecy is only the over- 
flowing of His Omniscience, so Miracles are only 
the overflowing of His Almightiness. In Miracle, 
He teaches by action ; in Parable, He teaches by 
word. In every Miracle Christ is present, teaching 
by some forthputting of Divine Power. The Mira- 
cle not only authenticates the Teacher, but does, 
itself, teach. Christ is in the Miracle teaching. 

The usual definition of a miracle, that it is a 
" suspension, or violation, or abrogation of the 
Laws of Nature," seems to be neither satisfactory, 
Scriptural, nor philosophical. If there is a God, 
He will not violate His own laws, whether those 
laws be natural or spiritual ; and if there is no 
personal God, but only Nature, surely Nature will 
not suspend or abrogate herself. 

Man has power over the material creation to 
bring about results which Nature, left to herself, 
and to the operation of natural laws, never could 
produce. 

When man reaches forth his hand, and catches 
an apple, about to fall, through the force of gravi- 
tation, and prevents the natural result, viz., the fall 
of the apple to the earth, he does not thereby vio- 
late, or suspend, or abrogate the law of gravitation ; 
he simply introduces a force superior to the force 
of gravitation, — the apple is attracted to the earth 
in precisely the same proportion as before, — the 
force is there, all the same ; the law is there, all the 

9* 



102 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

same ; nature is there, all the same ; but a new force 
has been introduced upon the scene of action, and 
the new force has produced a new result ; if you 
please, an unnatural result : one that Nature, left to 
herself, never would produce. 

And just as you enlarge man's knowledge of 
Nature and her laws, you increase his power to pro- 
duce results which Nature could not effect. When 
man, in virtue of his intelligence and will, com- 
bines two natural forces to produce a certain effect, 
he does not thereby suspend or abrogate the Laws 
of Nature: he takes advantage of the Law, and 
bringing to bear upon Nature a Force, viz., Personal 
Intelligence and Will, superior to herself, he accom- 
plishes the desired end. 

The chemist, familiar with the laws of definite 
proportions and combinations, combines two dis- 
tinct and different substances, for example, grease 
and lye, and the result is an entirely new substance, 
viz., soap. 

Whenever an Intelligent Personal Force is super- 
induced upon the material creation, a result is pro- 
duced above and beyond the powers of mere 
Nature, or natural laws to effect. If man's knowl- 
edge of the material creation could be infinitely 
increased, then his powers, to modify the results 
of the operation of natural forces, would be in- 
finitely increased. 

The power of man, to modify the result of the 



Christ teaching by Miracles. 103 

operation of natural laws, reaches to a certain 
point; beyond that limit it cannot go. But God's 
Power to control the operation of all natural forces 
is without limit, — since He has perfect knowledge 
of all substances, forces, and laws, He has power 
to move upon them when and where He pleases, 
and to bring about results above and beyond the 
power of mere natural law or force, and above and 
beyond the power of any created being. 

When Divine Pozver and Will are thus brought to 
bear upon the material creation, effecting some change, 
beyond the pozver of natural force or created intelli- 
gence to accomplish, this effect zve call a Miracle. 

But in no such miracle is any Law or Force 
in Nature suspended, violated, or abrogated, — the 
natural force is as powerfully operative as ever ; 
but a Divine Force has been superinduced modify- 
ing the natural effect of the natural law. As in 
the case of the apple, the outstretched human hand 
prevents the force of gravitation from drawing the 
apple to the ground ; so in the miracle, the Divine 
Hand modifies, according to the Divine Will, the 
operation of mere natural and material forces, and 
produces a new and different effect. 

It has been remarked that man has power, up to 
a certain limit, to modify the results of the work- 
ings of natural forces or laws, — beyond this limit, 
however, he cannot pass. The Scriptures clearly 
teach that man, when aided by satanic or diabolical 



104 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

power, may produce results which mere human 
power could not accomplish. 
m Jesus Christ teaches, with the utmost fullness and 
clearness, the existence of angels and devils ; and 
that these beings do have power in this world. 
Satan seems to have power over the physical world 
superior to that possessed by man. And, doubtless, 
many of the unexplained facts of ancient necro- 
mancy and of modern witchcraft and spiritualism 
find their true solution in the presence of satanic 
and demoniacal influence. 

Of course this influence can be exercised only 
so far as God shall permit. 

The magicians of Egypt imitated three of the 
works of Moses, viz., the Rod turned into a serpent; 
the Water turned into blood ; and the Frogs coming 
up on the land,-^up to this point the magicians, 
instigated and aided by the Devil, could go with 
their enchantments. Jannes and Jambres with- 
standing Moses ; and the Devil in and through 
them resisting Christ, who was speaking and 
working in and through His servant Moses. 

At the fourth plague, wrought by Divine Power, 
through Moses, the plague of the Lice, the power 
of the magicians and the Devil ceased, and the 
necromancers said, This is the Finger of God. 

There was a manifestation of power, so superior 
to any they possessed, that they could ascribe it to 
nothing less than God. The power of the Devil 



Christ teaching by Miracles, 105 

over the physical creation is manifest in the Book 
of Job. Jehovah permitted him, within a given 
limit, to afflict His servant Job : and the great wind 
that smote the house, and the grievous sores that 
covered the body of Job, were undoubtedly caused 
by satanic power. Without multiplying proofs, the 
Saviour warns us in the most solemn manner that 
false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and 
shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that 
if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 
The Holy Ghost speaks of one, whose coming is 
after the working of Satan, with all power, and 
signs, and lying wonders. 

And here, after all, is the real difficulty as regards 
miracles, viz., by what criteria shall we know cer- 
tainly that a given change wrought in the material 
creation is the direct result of Divine Power? 

If human intelligence and will may modify the 
action of natural law r ; if satanic power, mediately 
or immediately, may produce still greater signs and 
wonders ; if the Divine Teacher warns us that if it 
were possible even the elect of God would be de- 
ceived, then the important question is, how shall 
we know that any work or miracle, any sign or 
wonder, is the immediate product of Divine Power 
and will? 

There is, I think, one infallible test of all the 
miracles of Scripture, viz., that in every instance 
the power put forth in the miracle is directed 



io6 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

against Satan and his kingdom. As Nicodemus 
well says, no man can do the miracles that thou 
doest except God be with him : there was something 
in the character of the miracles wrought by Christ 
that proved their Divine origin : the miracles that 
thou doest. 

For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, 
that He might destroy the works of the Devil, — 
and in every miracle of the Scriptures, Christ is 
teaching this great truth, that in His forthputting 
of power He is destroying the works of the Devil. 
When Christ cast out a devil, the Pharisees did not 
pretend to deny the fact ; but charged that it was 
done by Beelzebub, the Prince of the Devils. The 
answer of Jesus throws wondrous light on this 
whole subject: Every kingdom divided against 
itself is brought to desolation; and every city or 
house divided against itself shall not stand: and 
if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against him- 
self; how shall then his kingdom stand ? And 
then He tells them that the kingdom of God is 
come unto them ; and the proof thereof is that 
He, by the Spirit of God, is casting out devils. 

Recurring, for a moment, to what has been ad- 
vanced, it is evident that the miracles must be 
limited to the realm of the material creation, where 
the change wrought is cognizable by the senses: 
where the miracle is an object of sense perception; 
and thus capable of verification. If we extend the 



Christ teaching by Miracles. 107 

sphere of the miracle to the purely spiritual realm, 
then it becomes impossible of complete verification, 
especially to those who have not spiritual discern- 
ment : hence it is that regeneration, though an 
immediate work of the Holy Ghost, does not fall 
under the head of miracles. 

Again, the miracle is not a suspension or viola- 
tion of the laws or forces of the physical creation^ 
— these continue to operate with unabated vigor ; 
but a superior force counteracts this force, and a 
new product is the result. 

Again, there is something in the character of 
the Divine Miracle, differentiating it from all the 
works of man, and all the signs and lying wonders 
of satanic agency. 

Of course it is evident that this entire argument 
proceeds upon the assumption that there is an extra 
mundane Personal God, and that He is the Creator 
of the material universe. If these two facts are 
denied by any one, then there can be no force, in 
this argument, to him. 

When I speak of the miracles of Christ, I do not 
mean merely those wrought by Him personally, 
when He was on earth, in the flesh ; but all of the 
miracles wrought by His Spirit during the entire 
period of Revelation, and recorded in the Scrip- 
tures of the Old and New Testaments. All of these 
distinct and diverse miracles constitute but one 
system ; are wrought by one and the self- same 



108 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Spirit, are from one Divine Author, even Christ ; 
and teach the same great truth, that the Son of God 
is destroying the works of the Devil. 

Two phases of the miracle must here be con- 
sidered, viz. : The Miracle as a credential of a 
Divine Messenger and Message : and the Miracle 
as teaching Divine Truth. 

THE MIRACLE AS A CREDENTIAL. 

The most casual student of the Word of Christ 
cannot fail to have noticed how ready God always 
is to authenticate His messengers and His message 
to men. 

When Moses said, The people to whom Thou 
dost send me will not believe me, the Lord gave 
him power to cast his rod on the ground and turn 
it into a serpent ; to put his hand into his bosom, 
and it became leprous, and when returned to his 
bosom it was restored ; to pour water from the 
river on the earth and it became blood. And the 
Lord Himself declared that these were signs 
whereby the people might know that He had sent 
His servant. 

When the Lord appeared to Gideon and told 
him that he should deliver Israel from Midian, 
Gideon asked for a sign ; that one night the fleece 
of wool might be wet, and the next night dry, and 
the Lord gave the desired sign. When the Angel 
informed Zacharias that his wife should bear him 



Christ teaching by Miracles. 109 

a son in their old age, Zacharias asks whereby 
shall I know this ; and the Angel gave him the 
sign that he should be dumb until the birth of the 
promised son. 

The Pharisees and scribes, the enemies of Christ, 
were continually demanding of Him some sign of 
His Divine mission ; and He appeals to His works 
as the proof that the Father had sent Him ; telling 
them that if they were unconvinced by these, they 
would not be persuaded by any number of new 
and additional ones. 

When the Apostles went forth to bear witness 
to the Gospel, God also bore witness to and with 
them, with signs and wonders, and with divers 
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to 
His own will. Jesus of Nazareth was a man ap- 
proved as a Divine Teacher by miracles, wonders, 
and signs which God did by Him. The works 
which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same 
works that I do bear witness of Me, that the Father 
hath sent Me. 

These passages prove that works in the material 
realm, transcending the power of nature, man, or 
devils, did authenticate men as the messengers of 
God ; the Divine work bore witness to the Divine 
Word. 

This leads to the second inquiry, the character 
of the miracle. All of the miracles of Christ pos- 
sessed one or two or three characteristics, viz. : 

10 



no Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

They were mere signs to authenticate a Divine 
message, — for example, the sign given to Gideon ; 
or they were, in addition to this, exhibitions of 
Divine Power directed against the kingdom of 
Satan ; Divine judgments on sin and Satan ; as the 
plagues on Egypt, and all destructive forthputting 
of Divine Power; or they were manifestations of 
Divine Power in the way of feeding, healing, and 
saving. 

Nearly all of the miracles wrought personally 
by Christ were of this latter class, — the miracle 
was the Gospel in action; it was Christ, the Feeder; 
Christ, the Healer; Christ, the Deliverer; Christ, 
the Restorer; Christ, the Saviour. It is Christ 
counteracting in the material world the disorder 
and ruin introduced by sin and Satan ; a sign and 
a pledge of His counteracting the disorder and 
ruin brought by sin and Satan into the spiritual 
realm ; the material healings, deliverings, and 
savings are types and tokens of the spiritual 
cleansings and savings. 

And just here is the beauty and glory of the 
Christian miracle ; it is Divine Power put forth to 
bind the strong man, the Devil ; to deliver the 
captives, giving them liberty and life, — and this 
feature will always enable the thoughtful student 
to distinguish the miracle of Christ from all lying 
signs and wonders. 

The works of Christ during the entire period of 



Christ teaching by Miracles. 1 1 1 

revelation, whether wrought immediately by Him, 
or mediately through His servants, will always con- 
form perfectly to His Word given during the same 
period, whether the Word be spoken by Himself 
in person, or by Holy Men as they were inspired 
by His Spirit. There is perfect correspondence 
between the words of Christ as contained in 
Scripture, and the works of Christ as recorded in 
Scripture. 

It is a very low view of the miracle to regard it 
as merely the credential of a Divine messenger; 
or a supernatural work ; or a judgment upon Satan, 
— it is all this, but it is far more, it is the manifes- 
tation of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, in His 
office and character as Saviour of the world; the 
vast number of miracles of healing wrought by 
Christ is evidence conclusive that they were not 
merely credentials or judgments. 

On this point, Rev. James Inglis, one of the 
most able, accurate, and devout of Biblical students, 
says, — " These miracles of Christ were the first 
fruits of coming deliverance to a groaning creation ; 
and proclaimed Him to be the Mighty Saviour, 
who will make all things new. His life was filled 
up with miracles, because they were the proper 
acts of His office: they were deeds of mercy, in 
the relief of human misery, and the removal of 
human infirmities; mingled with these are some 
acts of mastery over the elements of inanimate 



112 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

existence, shewing that He is the Saviour, the seed 
of the woman, who shall remove the curse from 
the material creation and make all things ' new. 
Miracles are not the mere credentials of His Divine 
mission, but the manifestation of His Messianic 
character, the proper functions of His office, and 
the first fruits of the great deliverance, which He 
is yet to achieve in a fallen world." 

The miracles of healing wrought personally by 
Christ, so far from being, as many suppose, few in 
number, must have numbered hundreds and thou- 
sands. Mark says, they brought unto Him one day, 
at Capernaum, all that were diseased and possessed 
of devils, and He healed them. On another occa- 
sion, Mark says, great multitudes followed Him, 
from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from 
beyond Jordan, from Tyre and Sidon, and He 
healed them all. 

It is needless to multiply passages of similar im- 
port; the fact is patent, that the life of Christ was 
largely taken up in the performance of these-works 
of healing and saving; and He was thereby reveal- 
ing Himself as the Healer, Restorer, and Saviour, 
— the Author and Finisher of the New Creation. 

His works bore witness to the words spoken by 
His Spirit through the Prophets ; and the words 
of the Prophets bore witness to His works wrought 
by the same Spirit: and both words and works 
attest' Him as the Teacher sent from God. Here 



Christ teaching by Miracles. 1 1 3 

we reach the crowning glory of the miracle, it is 
the manifestation and revelation of Jesus Christ in 
His person, character, and office, as the Son of God, 
the Saviour of men, — as the One who has power 
on earth to forgive sin ; to say to the palsied man, 
Be whole ; to the leper, I will be thou clean ; to the 
dead Lazarus, Come forth. The miracle is the 
Gospel in act; just as the parable is the Gospel in 
word. 

The miracles of Christ, considered as a manifes- 
tation and revelation of Him, as the Son of God, 
the Saviour of men, admit of a simple and natural 
classification, viz. : 

1st. Over inanimate nature. 

2d. Over human bodies and souls. 

3d. Over death. 

4th. Over Satan and all demons. 

1st. Over inanimate nature. — The first Adam was 
the visible head of the original creation ; and He 
was invested with dominion over all orders of 
creatures below him. This dominion, lost by sin, 
is to be regained by the second Adam, the head 
of the New Creation : for He says, Behold I make 

ALL THINGS NEW. 

The whole inanimate creation which now groaneth 
and travaileth in pain is to be restored ; and there 
shall be a New Heaven and a New Earth. The 
curse, which passed over from the sinning head to 



114 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

all the parts and forms of the original creation, is 
to be removed by Him, who comes as the sinless 
head of the new creation. For all things are now 
put in subjection under His feet, who was for a 
little while made lower than the Angels, but who is 
now crowned with glory and honor. The inani- 
mate creation, lost in its first head, Adam, is to be 
restored and made new in its second head, the 
Lord from Heaven. And all the miracles of Christ 
in this domain, whether wrought immediately by 
Him in person, or mediately through His servants ; 
whether before, during, or after His incarnation, 
are Divine works revealing Him as the head of the 
new creation : as all things were made by Him at 
the beginning, so shall all things be made new by 
Him at His second coming. Between these two 
points ; the miracles over inanimate nature, the 
manna in the wilderness, the unfailing cruse of oil, 
the harmless fire in the seven times heated furnace, 
the water turned to wine, the stilling of the tempest, 
the opening of the prison doors for Peter's escape, 
are the types and pledges of the new creation, and 
the manifestations of the infinite dominion of the 
Son of God. So far from miracles being incredi- 
ble, it is absolutely incredible that there should 
not be miracles : incredible that Jesus is the Son 
of God, and yet not manifest His Supreme God- 
head and infinite dominion ; incredible that He 
should be the head of the new creation, and yet 



Christ teaching by Miracles. 115 

not have and manifest power to make all things 
new. 

2d. His miracles over human bodies and souls. — 
Jesus Himself connects these two things. When 
He healed the palsied man, and the scribes mur- 
mured because He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven 
thee, He answered them, Whether is it easier to say 
to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, 
or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk, — 
but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath 
power on earth to forgive sins, He saith to the sick 
of the palsy, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy 
way into thine house. 

The name given Him by the Angel was laeaus, 
Jesus, Healer. He comes to heal man of all the 
dire maladies caused by sin ; to open the eyes of 
the blind, to unstop the ears of the deaf, to loose 
the tongue of the dumb, and to cleanse the leper. 
Prophecy had foretold that Messiah should do 
these things ; and in the doing of them He is mani- 
fested in His Messianic character as the Healer, the 
Restorer, the Deliverer. If Jesus of Nazareth be 
the Messiah, then it is sknply impossible for Him 
not to do these miracles of healing. 

As the Light of the world, He must give sight 
to the blind ; as the Bread from Heaven, He must 
feed the hungry; as the Divine Physician, He must 
cleanse the leper. Upon the supposition that what 
He says of Himself is true, miracles of healing are 



Ii6 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

a necessity of His office. And all these works of 
healing, cleansing, restoring, delivering, feeding, in 
the material realm, are types and tokens of the 
greater work of healing and cleansing in the invisi- 
ble spiritual realm. He took our infirmities and 
bare our sicknesses. 

3d. Power over death. — Jesus is the Resurrection 
and the Life. As the Father had life, so also did 
He give to the Son to have life in Himself, — and 
this life was manifested, and manifested its power 
over death. Because of sin, death passed upon the 
whole human family : and the last enemy to be 
destroyed is death. 

Jesus as the Infinite Fountain of Life and the 
Resurrection asserts and manifests His power over 
death and the grave. He translates Enoch that he 
shall not taste death ; He catches Elijah up to 
Heaven in the chariot of fire ; He causes the dead 
man to revive when he touches the bones of Elisha ; 
He brings back to a mortal existence in the flesh 
the son of the widow of Nain, the daughter of 
Jairus, and His friend Lazarus. And then after 
His own death and burial He rises from the dead, 
bringing life and immortality to light. These mira- 
cles manifest Him as the Resurrection, — they do 
not create, but bring to light the life and immor- 
tality which were in Him in Divine fullness. We 
speak of the resurrection of Lazarus, but it is 
simply resuscitation, revivification, not resurrection. 



Christ teaching by Miracles. 117 

Christ was Himself the first fruits of them that 
slept. 

4th. Over Satan and all demons. — The seed of 
the woman shall bruise the serpent's head ; for this 
purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He 
might destroy the works of the Devil. 

No man who accepts the teachings of Jesus Christ 
as Divine can deny the personality of the Devil, or 
the objective reality of demoniacal possessions : 
and one of the most glorious manifestations of His 
power and character is seen in His mastery over 
the world of fallen spirits. As seed of the woman, 
He is in fierce and deadly conflict with Satan and 
his kingdom. 

The devils recognized and confessed Him as 
their Lord, saying, u Let us alone, what have we 
to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth ? art Thou 
come to destroy us ? I know Thee who Thou art, 
the Holy One of God." In His casting out of 
devils, He is revealed as the destroyer of the 
works and the kingdom of the Devil, — and these 
miracles are the Tokens, Pledges, and Types of 
His complete and eternal triumph over Satan 
and his kingdom. 

Christ was, and is, and is to come ; the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever; and as such all of 
His work is retrospective, present, and prospec- 
tive, — past, present, and future are all with Him, 
an everlasting Now. 



1 1 8 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

A supernatural element runs through the entire 
period of revelation, through all the teachings of 
Christ, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaments, — there is everywhere a power, a 
force, above and superior to Nature and all her 
forces and laws, and this supernatural element, this 
force, is the power of the Son of God. And this 
miraculous power of the Son of God is manifested 
towards His enemies as judgments; towards His 
friends as salvation. It is a savor of death unto 
death, and of life unto life. 

He is set for the rising and the falling of many 
in Israel. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CHRIST TEACHING BY TYPES. 

If the entire universe lives and moves and has 
its being in God, then it must be, in some sense, a 
representation and revelation of Him. The invisi- 
ble things of Him, His eternal power and God- 
head, are seen in the things that are made : and 
since God is absolutely One, we must look for 
unity or oneness in the works of creation. And, 
however different things may seem to us, they are 
after all near akin : so much so, that the Great 



Christ teaching by Types. 119 

Teacher is accustomed to explain the things of the 
heavenly by those of the earthly kingdom. There 
is oneness of principle between the growth of a 
mustard-seed and the growth of the kingdom of 
God. 

Naturalists tell us that the vast universe is built 
up after certain typical forms, — that there are cer- 
tain patterns after which all things seem to be made. 
There are correspondences, resemblances, like- 
nesses, onenesses, unities running through all the 
varied orders of creation. There are homologues, 
homotypes, and analogues; there are types and 
archetypes. 

All flowers, plants, herbs, and trees are built up 
according to certain fixed laws, after certain pat- 
terns, in certain forms. Throughout the entire 
vegetable kingdom all things are formed according 
to Tuizoq, — a Type. As far as man has knowledge, 
from the creation of the world to the present time, 
this law of typology has prevailed. 

This is equally true of the inorganic world, — all 
crystals adjust themselves according to certain fixed 
patterns or types ; assuming regular solid forms, 
with a certain definite number of smooth plane 
faces. Within certain fixed limits there are varia- 
tions from the original pattern ; but beyond that 
limit the variations never extend. 

So also in the wonderful science of numbers : 
there are laws of definite proportion for the com- 



1 20 Christ y the Teacher of Men. 

bining of substances ; they combine according to 
these proportions, and in no other. 

There are laws of addition and multiplication ; 
and squaring and cubing ; certain typical numbers 
among all nations, controlling the whole science 
of numeration. The knowledge of these typical 
numbers, and their laws, is the foundation of some 
of the noblest sciences among men. 

Then, too, there are typical colors ; and the whole 
beautiful world of color is formed in exact accord- 
ance with these typical laws. 

And in our day scientists are proclaiming, with 
the utmost confidence, that there are correspond- 
ences, resemblances, — in the nature of types,— 
between the varied phenomena of heat, light, color, 
and sound ; and the day may not be far distant 
when the typical law pervading all these phenomena 
shall be discovered and stated. 

But the Type finds its highest and best illustra- 
tion in the animal world : here, amid the multiplied 
and diverse forms of animal existence, the law of 
type reigns in unabated force. All races and tribes 
and nations are formed after the model man; there , 
are almost infinite varieties of face, form, look, 
gesture, color, — but man is ever and everywhere 
man ; made after the fixed model or type. Even 
Adam himself, the model man, was a Tonoq 9 — a 
Type of Him that was to come. 

The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the 



Christ teaching by Types. 121 

Archetype, the original pattern or model of the 
work of creation, — the First Born, the Head. Is 
it too much to say that the creation is modeled 
after Him ? First, that which is natural, afterwards 
that which is spiritual : a Living Soul, and then a 
Quickening Spirit; the First Man, earthly; the 
Second Man, heavenly; we bear the image of both, 
made in the image and after the likeness of God. 
Within certain limits, well defined in the teachings 
of Christ, development, evolution, is true. Not 
Life and being and form developed, by inherent 
forces, from primordial atoms or cells, — but all 
creation, the work of one Personal extramundane 
God ; from the lower ever upward to the higher ; 
all forms of existence according to the Tunoq^ — • 
inorganic matter and forms pointing to organic; 
the lower organic pointing to higher, vegetable 
to plant, plant to tree, tree to dumb animal, 
dumb animal to man, man to Christ, Christ to 
God. The whole Cosmos according to God 
Himself, the Eternal Archetype and Antitype of 
All. 

Dr. Fairbairn, in his Typology, says : — " Dr. 
McCosh pursues the subject even into the veg- 
etable field of nature, and endeavors to show 
that in plants which have leaves that strike the 
eye, the leaf and plant are typically analogous: 
the leaf is a typical plant or branch, and the tree 
or branch a typical leaf. In this field, however, 



122 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

the facts are neither so fully established, nor do 
they appear so perfectly uniform, as in the higher 
region of animal forms, or comparative anatomy. 
Here it is found, by a wide and satisfactory induc- 
tion, that the human is what may be called the 
pattern form of animal existences, — the archetype 
of the vertebrate division of animated nature. In 
the structure of all other animal forms there are 
observable striking resemblances to that of man, 
and resemblances of a kind that seem plainly de- 
signed to assimilate the lower, as near as circum- 
stances would admit, to the higher. It is found, 
that in all vertebrate animals, from fishes to man, 
the vertebrate skeleton is composed of a series of 
parts of essentially the same order, though modi- 
fied in a great variety of ways to suit the particular 
functions which each organ has to perform in the 
different animals respectively. 

" Thus to give only a single instance, every seg- 
ment, and almost every bone present in the human 
hand and arm, exist also in the fin of the whale, 
though they do not seem required for the support 
and movement of that undivided and inflexible 
paddle; and one can think of no specific reason 
for such a peculiarity of structure, excepting the 
intention of having it brought into the nearest pos- 
sible conformity to the archetype. Most strikingly 
does the similarity to the human type, coupled 
with its relative superiority to the others, appear 



Christ teaching by Types. 123 

in regard to the brain, which is the most peculiar 
and distinguishing part of the animal frame. 'Na- 
ture/ says Mr. Miller, ' in constructing this curious 
organ in man, first lays down a grooved cord, as 
the carpenter lays down the keel of his vessel; and 
on this narrow base, the perfect brain, as month 
after month passes by, is gradually built up, like 
the vessel from the keel. First it grows up into a 
brain closely resembling that of a fish ; a few ad- 
ditions more convert it into a brain undistinguish- 
able from that of a reptile ; a few additions more 
impart to it the perfect appearance of the brain of 
a bird ; it then develops into a brain exceedingly 
like that of a mammiferous quadruped ;'and finally 
expanding atop, and spreading out its deeply cor- 
rugated lobes, till they project widely over the 
base, it assumes its unique character as a human 
brain. Radically such at the first, it passes through 
all the inferior forms, from that of the fish upwards, 
as if each man were in himself, not the microcosm 
of the old fanciful philosopher, but something 
greatly more wonderful, — a compendium of all 
animated nature, and of kin to every creature that 
lives. Hence the remark, that man is the sum 
total of all animals, — "the animal equivalent," says 
Oken, "to the whole kingdom/' ' 

" This, however, is not the whole. For, as geology 
has now learned to read with sufficient accuracy 
the stony records of the past to be able to tell of 



1 24 Ovist \ the Teacher of Men. 

successive creations of vertebrate animals, from 
fish, the first and lowest, up to man, the last and 
highest; so here also we have a kind of typical 
history, — the animal productions of nature during 
those earlier geological periods bore, as the imper- 
fect, a prospective reference to man, as the com- 
plete and ultimate form of animal existence. They 
were the types, and he is the antitype in the mun- 
dane system. 

" In the words of Professor Owen, ' all the parts 
and organs of man had been sketched out in an- 
ticipation, so to speak, in the inferior animals ; and 
the recognitions of an ideal exemplar in-the verte- 
brated animals proves, that the knowledge of such 
a being as man must have existed before man 
appeared. For the divine mind, which planned 
the archetype, also foreknew all its modifications. 
The archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh 
long prior to the existence of those animal species 
that actually exemplify it. To what natural laws 
or secondary causes the orderly succession and 
progression of such organic phenomena may have 
been committed, we are as yet ignorant. But if, 
without derogation of the divine power, we may 
conceive the existence of such ministers, and per- 
sonify them by the term nature, we learn from the 
past history of our globe that she has advanced 
with slow and stately steps, guided by the arche- 
typal light amidst the wreck of worlds, from the 



Christ teaching by Types. 125 

first embodiment of the vertebrate idea under its 
old ichthyic vestment, until it became arrayed in 
the glorious garb of the human form/ 

" In this view of the matter, what a striking anal- 
ogy does the history of God's operations in nature 
furnish to His plan in providence, as brought out 
in the history of redemption ! Here, in like man- 
ner, there is a grand archetypal idea in the person 
and kingdom of Christ, towards which for ages the 
divine plan was continually working. Partial ex- 
hibitions of it appear from time to time in certain 
personages, events, and institutions that rise prom- 
inently into view as the course of providence pro- 
ceeds, but all marred with obvious faults and imper- 
fections in respect to the great object contemplated; 
until, at length, the idea in its entire length and 
breadth is seen embodied in Him to whom all the 
prophets gave witness, — the God-man foreordained 
before the foundation of the world. 'The Creator/ 
to adopt again the language of Mr. Miller, who, in 
an article in the 'Witness* newspaper of 2d August, 
185 1, has very felicitously described the analogy 
in this respect between the natural and the moral 
departments of God's plan, — ' the Creator, in the 
first ages of His workings, appears to have been 
associated with what He wrought simply as the 
producer or author of all things. But even in those 
ages, as scene after scene, and one dynasty of the 
inferior animals succeeded another, there were 

11* 



1 26 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

strange typical indications which pre-Adamite stu- 
dents of prophecy among the spiritual existences 
of the universe might possibly have aspired to 
read, — symbolical indications to the effect that the 
Creator was in the future to be more intimately 
connected with His material works than in the past, 
through a glorious creature made in His own image 
and likeness. And to this semblance and por- 
traiture of the Deity — the first Adam — all the 
merely natural symbols seem to refer. But in the 
eternal decrees it had been forever determined that 
the union of the Creator with creation was not to 
be a mere union by proxy or semblance. And no 
sooner had the first Adam appeared and fallen, 
than a new school of prophecy began, in which 
type and symbol were mingled with what had now 
its first existence on earth, — verbal enunciations ; 
and all pointed to the second Adam, " the Lord 
from heaven." In Him creation and the Creator 
meet in reality and not in semblance. On the very 
apex of the finished pyramid of being sits the ador- 
able Monarch of all : — as the son of Mary, — of 
David, — of the first Adam, the created of God ; as 
God and the Son of God, the eternal Creator of 
the universe. And these — the two Adams — form 
the main theme of all prophecy, natural and re- 
vealed. And that type and symbol should have 
been employed with reference not only to the 
second, but — as held by men like Agassiz and 



Christ teaching by Types. 127 

Owen — to the first Adam also, exemplifies, we are 
disposed to think, the unity of the style of Deity, 
and serves to shew that it was He who created the 
worlds that dictated the Scripture.' 

" The subject might even be prosecuted farther 
still, for it is as well fitted to stimulate the aspira- 
tions of hope toward the future, as to strengthen 
the foundations of faith in the past. If the arche- 
typal idea in animated nature has been wrought 
at, through long periods and successive stages of 
being, till it found its proper realization in man ; 
now that the nature of man is linked in personal 
union with the Godhead, for the purpose of repair- 
ing what is evil, and raising manhood to a higher 
than its original conditions, who can conceive to 
what peerless glory and perfection it may yet 
attain ? The divine power is no longer to be dis- 
played in creating what is new, but in a work of 
'regeneration' upon the old, to the intent that the 
earthly and human in us may be brought to the 
nearest possible conformity to the spiritual and 
divine in Christ. The frame and condition of re- 
deemed men, therefore, though relatively perfect 
as compared with the past, is yet but in embryo 
when viewed with respect to the more elevated 
future. All has still to assume the form and im- 
press of a more glorious type, which eye hath not 
seen nor ear heard; of which the whole we can 
now say is, — 'We know not what we shall be, but 



128 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

we know that when He shall appear we shall be 
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' " 

If the general principles thus briefly stated, and 
truths rather hinted at than elaborated, be true, 
then we should expect that the Divine Teacher 
would make a large use of Types in His instruc- 
tions to the children of men ; and when we ex- 
amine His Book, this expectation is fulfilled, — 
Christ throughout His Word teaches by Types. 

As Christ has had from everlasting a perfect 
knowledge of all His works, so has He had perfect 
knowledge of all His words ; the Word of God 
is constructed precisely according to the Pattern 
in the Divine Mind. As the World is made accord- 
ing to the Tu-oq } so also is the Word ; and as there 
are resemblances, correspondences, types, in nature, 
so are these also to be found in the various parts 
of the Word. And just as God reveals Himself 
in the typical forms of creation, so Christ reveals 
God to men in the Types of the Sacred Scriptures. 

While the Scriptures, like Nature, abound in 
types, yet we are to remember that everything in 
the Word is not typical. 

The very possibility of a revelation of the things 
of the invisible and eternal world rests upon the fact 
that there are Divinely-appointed resemblances be- 
tween the things that now are and the things that 
shall be hereafter. Heavenly truths are conveyed 
through earthly language : the eternal things are 



Christ teaching by Types. 129 

the substance ; the temporal things are the shadows. 
Persons, things, and events in one dispensation, are 
shadows of good things to come, — the substance in 
the future casts the shadows backward to the past; 
both are real, both are true, but one is substance, 
and one is shadow. The Law was a shadow of good 
things to come ; the Gospel was the substance. 

What Rev. Hugh Martin* says of the biographies 
of Christ is true of all the Teachings of Christ, 
— of all the Scriptures: "You do not deal with 
reminiscences of Christ ; memories and mementos 
of Him, however accurate, — conceptions, notions, 
ideas concerning Him, however true ; no, not even 
with mere doctrines concerning Him, however truly 
divine and precious, — you deal with Him and He 
with you, — the true and Living Christ in His own 
Holy Word and History. Ah, we have not the 
records of a past, but revelations of a present 
Saviour. By the lively oracles and the perpetual 
presence we have true intercourse with Jesus Him- 
self. Every Word and Work of Christ, manifest- 
ing forth His glory, doth now suit my case, benefit 
my soul, promote my salvation, up to this very 
moment, by a Saviour the same yesterday, to-day, 
and forever, who in His marvelous biography is 
living with us still by His Spirit. In all the 
spiritual and permanent efficacy of what He said 



* Christ's Presence in Gospel History. 
F* 



1 30 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

and did on earth, and left on. record, He is with us. 
The conducting power of the Eternal Spirit, dwell- 
ing in Christ's person above measure, and glorify- 
ing to the utmost the excellence and glory and 
efficacy of Christ's work, fills all time, past, pres- 
ent, and future, so that the element of time is 
utterly eliminated. What was transacted in the 
passing moments of His Incarnate Life was trans- 
acted in the permanent perpetual might of the 
Eternal Spirit, and as recorded by that Spirit who 
is enshrined in the Word, is itself, therefore, per- 
manent and perpetual. And so when Jesus retired 
to His Father's glory, and the Heavenly things 
that had been figured forth in swift succession, by 
His temporary sojourn in the flesh, were passing 
into swift oblivion, they were arrested ere it was 
too late, and placed on full and rich record on this 
other indelible dial of Christ's biography; and when 
the Spirit comes, this dial yields up the power, 
grace, truth, and glory of the Only Begotten of 
the Father exactly as He was on earth ; and so He 
is Present with us always, even to the end of the 
world." 

Let these glowing words of this gifted author 
be applied, as they do apply, to all the works and 
words of Christ, to all of His teachings in the 
Scriptures of both Testaments, and then, lo, the 
whole Word is a Testimony to Him, He is present 
in it all, — all is given by His Spirit, — all testifies of 



Christ teaching by Types. 131 

Him, — and He is the substance of all the shadows, 
the Archetype of all the types ; and the whole 
Word becomes at once a typical Book radiant with 
the glories of the Divine Redeemer. The whole 
Word is a Type of Christ ; it is the forthputting 
of the Divine Mind, in human speech, and form, 
and events, and persons, and things, according to 
the Eternal Pattern, to show forth the glory of Him 
who is the End and Model of all creation. Ordi- 
nances, rites, services, sabbaths, sacraments, per- 
sons, and. events are the shadows, — but the Body, 
that projects them all, is Christ Himself, the Eternal 
Archetype and Antitype. 

Christ Himself liveth in the Word, is adjoined 
unto it by the Holy Ghost, is Himself the Incar- 
nate Word ; and hence the Word is for all men 
and all ages, and liveth and abideth forever. Noth- 
ing in which Christ is enshrined, in which the Holy 
Spirit dwelleth, can ever grow old, obsolete, or 
effete. The eternal Tu-oq — the type — runs through 
it all forever; whatsoever things were written, were 
written for us, and for all men. 

Persons, things, events of the Word of God, in 
one period, containing and conveying Truth to the 
men of that period, serve as Types of Him who is 
to come; shadows cast backward by His Body, the 
Fullness of Life and Immortality; unto whom the 
generations shall afterwhile come, as they sweep on 
to the Infinite and Eternal. 



132 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

The germ, the norm, of all is in the Eden Promise, 
the Seed of the Woman shall bruise the serpent's 
Head, — the very Promise and form thereof beauti- 
fully typical, — the Development ever upwards, to 
the fullness of Time, and the Fullness of Incarnate 
Godhead : grace for grace, and glory for glory, on- 
ward and upward forever and forever. Patriarchal 
passing over into Mosaic, Mosaic into Kingly, 
Kingly into Personal Ministry, Personal Ministry 
into dispensation of the Holy Ghost, dispensation 
of the Holy Ghost into Personal Reign, Personal 
Reign into Eternal State, — God in Christ the Full- 
ness of all, revealing Himself, according to the 
Tu-oq y eternally to the intelligent universe. 

If the Word is full of Christ, if Moses, and the 
Psalms, and the Prophets testify of Him, if the 
entire spirit of all prophecy is a testimony to Him, 
then it is no strange thing that He should call 
Himself, 

The Root of David, 

The Branch, 

The Vine, 

The Bread of God, 

The Hidden Manna, 

The Rose of Sharon, 

The True Light, 

The Day Star, 

The Sun of Righteousness, 

The Bridegroom, 



Christ teaching by Types. 133 

The Lamb. 

The Good Shepherd, 

The Corner-Stone, 

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, 

The Prince, 

The Leader, 

The Faithful Witness, 

The Forerunner, 

The Second Adam, 

The Shadow of a great Rock, 

An Hiding-Place from the wind. 
These are not all, but some of the Types used 
by Christ in His Word to reveal God to man. 
Here we have natural objects, persons, things, used 
as shadows of Him who is substance, the Eternal 
Archetype of them all. Here, too, there are cor- 
respondences, resemblances, likenesses, and uni- 
ties : resemblances Divinely ordained, appointed, 
constituted, declared. 

We speak of these things as figures, symbols, 
metaphors, similes; are they not much rather Twcot t 
— Types, shadows of the eternal substance, the Di- 
vine Archetype? As an illustration of this subject, 
take Bread as a Type of Christ. In the garden of 
Eden was there The Tree of Life, of which man 
was to eat: then our fathers did eat Manna in the 
wilderness, and are dead ; then Jesus multiplies the 
Bread, until thousands are fed; then Jesus says, I 
am the Bread of Life, if any man eat of this Bread, 



134 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

he shall live forever ; whoso eateth my flesh and 
drinketh my blood hath eternal life, dwelleth in 
Me, and I in him. Behold I stand at the door and 
knock, if any man open the door, I will come in 
and sup with him, and he with Me. To him that 
overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna; 
and all the redeemed of God sit down in the New 
Jerusalem to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb ; 
and in the Paradise regained, the Tree of Life bears 
twelve manner of fruit, and the leaves of the tree 
are for the healing of the nations. Now add to 
all this the saying of Christ, Man shall not live by 
bread alone, but by every Word of God, and we 
have a vivid and beautiful Type of Christ the true 
Bread, Christ the Incarnate Word. 

The Levitical Ritual, Sacred History, Prophecy, 
Miracles, Parables, are all pre-eminently typical ; 
each containing truth in its day for the men of 
that period, but each also containing other and 
higher truth for the men of the coming ages. 

The Parables of Christ are, perhaps with not a 
single exception, typical ; and it is this feature 
which makes exhaustless fountains of truth and 
knowledge. 

Christ, the Divine Teacher, Himself the Eternal 
Archetype, with infinite knowledge of all worlds, 
all things, all resemblances and relations, points 
out to the children of men, wherein one thing is 
the type of another, — and thus, the tares, the raus- 



Christ teaching by Types, 135 

tard, the leaven, the net, become types of the king- 
dom of Heaven. 

" We behold the incarnate Word, standing in 
the midst of the world which He made, the rela- 
tions which He instituted, and the operations of 
Providence, whose intricate lines He held in His 
hand, and reading off the wonderful lessons which 
the visible — the world in which He was— teaches 
of the invisible, — the world from which He came ; 
and interpreting the shadows of spiritual things, 
the hieroglyphics of God. With His omniscient 
eye, He can see what man with his short-sighted 
vision cannot. Physical objects, natural processes, 
material things, earthly occupations and relation- 
ships, are made to serve as types of Heavenly, 
spiritual, and eternal realities ; — or rather, the 
Heavenly are the substantial, enduring realities, 
of which the earthly are the shadows." 

" What if earth 
Be but the shadow of Heaven and things therein, 
Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought." 

Throughout the Scriptures there are certain 
Numbers, Objects, Persons, Offices, Places, Rites, 
Institutions, Events used by Christ, the Teacher 
of men, to convey spiritual Truth ; and because of 
resemblances, relations, correspondences, between 
these and the good things of the Gospel, and the 
kingdom of Heaven, they are appointed and de- 



136 Christ \ the Teacher of Men, 

clared to be types. Melchizedek, Moses, David ; 
the wilderness, Egypt, Canaan ; the smitten Rock, 
the lifted serpent, the Vail of the Temple ; the 
sacrifices, oblations, and washings ; the Altar, the 
Shew-Bread, the Mercy Cover; the Lamb, the 
Passover, the Sabbatic year; — all of these, and 
thousands more, are types of the Heavenly king- 
dom, of the good things of the Gospel, of Christ 
Himself. They are not old, nor effete, nor dead, — 
they are for our instruction, our comfort, our edi- 
fication, — they live and abide forever, and Christ 
liveth in them, and liveth to and in us, through 
them. Search the Scriptures, for they testify of 
Me. 

In John xx. 25, we have this use of the Greek 
word " Tu-oc^ — Eng. Type, — " Except I shall see 
in his hands the Tunov of the nails." 

In Acts vii. 44, That Moses should make the 
Tabernacle according to the " Tunov" that he had 
seen. 

In Romans v. 14, Adam who was a Tu-o~ of 
Him that was to come. 

In 1 Cor. x. 1 1, Now all of these things happened 
unto them for Tuizot. 

The meaning of the word, as seen from its use 
in these four cases, is very evident and most in- 
structive. 



Christ teaching by Types, 137 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PERSONAL PECULIARITIES OF CHRIST AS TEACHER 
OF MEN. 

Christ's personal ministry continued a little over 
three years ; it was confined exclusively to Judea 
and to the Jews, a hated and despised people, and 
yet its influence has been wider and deeper than 
that .of all other ministries combined. 

The officers sent by the Chief Priests and Phari- 
sees to arrest Him spoke the truth when they said, 
" Never man spake like this man." 

Unheralded and unattended, the youthful Jesus 
of Nazareth began His public teaching by the proc- 
lamation, Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand. He had grown up in obscurity at Naza- 
reth, and yet the whole nation is moved by a com- 
mon impulse to hear the wondrous words which 
fall from the lips of the humble carpenter. 

Men do not agree in their views concerning Him, 
but all are alike eager to see and to hear. Phari- 
sees and Sadducees, Lawyers and Scribes, Priests 
and Publicans, Saints and Sinners; men of all 
ranks, classes, and conditions press in tumultuous 
throngs upon His teaching. 



138 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Some said He had a devil and was mad ; others, 
that He was Elijah or Jeremiah ; others, that He 
was John the Baptist risen from the dead ; others, 
that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living 
God : now they shouted Hosanna, and now they 
cry, Away with Him, crucify Him ! but so far as we 
have information none ever heard Him unmoved : 
the interest excited by His preaching was universal 
and most intense. In this particular, no other 
Teacher who has ever appeared among men can 
for a moment compare with Him. From the com- 
mencement to the close of His ministry He never 
failed to awaken the deepest thoughts and feelings 
of the vast multitudes who pressed upon Him to 
hear the Word. 

Immediately after His temptation by the Devil 
in the wilderness, He returned in the power of the 
Spirit to Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him 
through all the region round about. When He 
entered into Capernaum, and it became known, 
straightway many were gathered together, inso- 
much there was no room to receive them, no, not 
so much as about the door. At another time, the 
press was so great that He was compelled to enter 
into a ship and thrust out a little from the shore, 
and preach to the immense throng gathered at the 
water's edge. The whole country, from Dan in the 
North to Beersheba in the South, is aroused under 
the magic power of His preaching. He was never 



Personal Peculiarities of Christ. 139 

at a loss for a congregation ; for the people always 
attended in crowds when it was known that Jesus 
of Nazareth was to preach. Methinks that the best 
instructions on Homiletics, on teaching young 
ministers how to preach, is to be found, not in the 
many volumes written on Sacred Rhetoric and Ser- 
mon-making, but in these wonderful Biographies, 
which set before us, in living character, the Great- 
est of all Teachers in His matter, manner, and 
methods. To all Teachers of Divine Truth I say, 
study this Teacher, imbibe His spirit, matter, and 
manner, and try to teach as He taught. Perfect 
success in this direction is of course impossible, 
but approximate Jesus as Teacher as nearly as 
possible. 

I would note this, then, as the first peculiarity of 
Christ's personal ministry, viz., the intense interest 
which He awakened among all classes and condi- 
tions of men. Multitudes attended that ministry, 
and no one was unmoved under His teaching. 

Another marked feature in the teaching of Jesus 
was His profound conviction of the absolute truth- 
fulness of all that He spoke. His own soul was 
filled and moved with the truths which He pro- 
claimed to others. He moved others, because He 
was Himself moved by the Truth. No man can 
impress others with his teachings unless those 
teachings have first impressed his own soul. Let 
some precious truth take deep hold upon some 



140 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

great soul; let it pervade the man's whole being; 
let it be the guiding-star of his own life; let it 
govern his whole conduct, then when he comes 
forth to tell that truth to his fellow-mortals, it will 
come to them with such tremendous energy and 
force that they cannot resist it. When Luther's 
own heart, after terrific conflicts and mighty wres- 
tlings with the Devil, had received the truth of 
justification by faith alone, is it any marvel that 
all Europe trembled beneath his words of fire, 
bursting from a heart itself on fire ? 

Of all men, Jesus had, in largest measure, this 
inward impulse, this enthusiasm of and for the 
Truth. He knew and believed the Truth, and, 
therefore, he must speak. His Father's Word was 
in His heart; that Father's Word must be spoken 
by His lips. Did any man ever give a mighty and 
lasting impulse to his fellow-men by delivering a 
message which he himself did not believe ? Would 
Christ's doctrine have stirred the nation as it did 
if He Himself had not believed it ? Surely men 
can have no doubt as to the sincerity of this Teacher; 
they must know that Jesus believed and felt the 
truth of all that He taught. 

He felt in all its Divine fullness the preciousness 
of the Truth that He preached: it was indeed His 
meat and drink to do and declare His Father's will ; 
that Word was a burning fire within Him, and 
kindled the zeal that consumed Him. He knew 



Personal Peculiarities of Christ, 141 

in His own soul that His words were spirit and 
life, and hence He spake with such an air of cer- 
tainty and such a depth of conviction. No wonder 
that the people came in crowds from all parts of 
the country to listen to a man so thoroughly in 
earnest, so profoundly impressed Himself with the 
truth and importance of His doctrines. 

Thirdly. So far as authority is concerned, He 
calmly rests His teachings upon the Authority of 
the Truth : Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth 
shall make you free. To this end was I born, and 
for this cause came I into the world, that I should 
bear witness to the Truth. I am the Way, the 
Truth, and the Life. 

This question of authority is continually rising 
among men. One man appeals to the Pope, another 
to the church, another to precedent, another to 
tradition. Jesus appeals to the Truth. 

The religious teachers of His day pointed to the 
traditions of the Elders ; it was enough for them 
that some eminent Rabbi of a distant generation 
had taught this or that doctrine, — the teaching 
must be accepted upon this authority. Not thus 
did Jesus teach ; and the scribes and Pharisees 
continually charged Him with making void the 
traditions of the Elders. 

So men now say, I believe this upon the authority 
of the church, or the Pope, or the brethren ; whereas 
we ought to believe upon the authority of the 



142 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

Truth or the God of Truth. Man must have some 
firm and abiding foundation for his beliefs and 
hopes ; the time will come when his soul shall stand 
face to face with the Eternal Verity, and then all 
that is not of the Truth shall be stripped from him 
and cast into the outer darkness. Christ teaches 
the Truth, is Himself the Truth, and always appeals 
to the authority of Truth. Beyond the Truth no 
man need to go. 

Christ comes as a witness to the Truth; and He 
would have men receive His words because they 
are true ; and every one that is of the Truth heareth 
His words. 

There must be some ultimate, absolute, infallible 
authority upon which the soul of man can calmly 
and safely rest, — and this infallible authority is 
found in the Truth and the God of the Truth; and 
that Truth and that God are revealed to us by Him 
who is Himself the Truth and the true Revealer 
of the God of Truth. 

When Christ teaches upon His personal authority 
it is because He is the Truth, and because His 
words are true. 

Fourthly. I wish to call attention to another 
peculiarity of Christ's personal teaching, as related 
to the Law. This subject has already been dis- 
cussed, but it is worthy of further notice in this 
connection. 

It is a very popular and prevailing belief that 



Personal Peculiarities of Christ. 143 

Christ inculcated a much less rigid righteousness 
than that contained in the Law, — that Christ is all 
mildness, while Moses is all vengeance, — that it is 
much easier to obey the Sermon on the Mount 
than the Law given from Sinai. Never was there 
a greater mistake than this. Of all the intense 
and terrific preachings of the Law, none can com- 
pare with the Sermon on the Mount. Much as 
men may decry the preaching of the Law, let them 
remember that Christ is the Prince of Legal 
Preachers. He did not come to destroy the Law, 
but to fulfill ; and He assures us that not one jot 
or tittle shall ever fail, — Heaven and earth may pass 
away, but the Law shall never pass away. 

When He re-enacts and expounds the Law, He 
reveals, with Divine fullness, its intense spirituality; 
showing that mere outward observance of its 
commands comes far short of its requirements. A 
man who cherishes anger in his heart is a murderer, 
though his hands are unstained with human blood. 
A man who harbors a lustful desire for a woman 
in his heart is in the eyes of God an adulterer, 
though guiltless of actual crime. According to 
the Jewish interpretation, murder was the shedding 
of blood; according to Christ, anger in the heart is 
murder. He expounds the Law until it reaches to 
the very innermost recesses of the mind and heart. 

He shows to the young ruler who claimed that 
he had kept all the precepts of the Law from his 



144 Christ \ the Teacher of Men. 

youth up, that while outwardly blameless, he had 
loved his gold more than his God, and was there- 
fore guilty in the eyes of the Law. The Law de- 
manded supreme love of the soul to God, and this 
the young man had never rendered, — hence he 
went away sorrowful, for he was very rich. 

So far from Christ abating one iota of the Law's 
demands, He increases them a thousand-fold, by 
revealing their intense spirituality. If men think 
it so easy to live in obedience to the teachings of 
Christ, let them try for one day to order their lives 
in accordance with the Law as expounded by Him 
in the Sermon on the Mount. As their hearts are 
searched in the light of these words, they will learn 
something of the extent and spirituality of the Law, 
and will know whether Christ inculcates a lower 
morality than that taught by Moses from the burn- 
ing mount. 

Fifthly. It is a popular and prevailing miscon- 
ception that the Teachings of Christ were all gen- 
tleness, goodness, and charity; that He was a Being 
of simple Benevolence, and taught nothing but 
Love and Mercy. 

Too much cannot be said in praise of Love, for 
Love is the fulfilling of the Law, and God Him- 
self is Love. Now abideth faith, hope, and charity, 
but the greatest of these is charity. 

To every broken-hearted sinner Jesus was all 
tenderness and love; the bruised reed He did not 



Personal Peculiarities of Christ. 145 

break, the smoking flax He did not quench. To 
the penitent thief dying on the cross at His side 
He says, To-day shalt thou be with me in Para- 
dise : to the publican despised by his own people, 
He says, Make haste, Zaccheus, and come down, 
for to-day I must abide at thy house : to the woman 
taken in the very act of adultery, He says, Neither 
do I condemn thee, go and sin no more : for the 
men who cry aloud for His blood He prays, 
Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. 

Would to God that all professed Christians had 
more of this Divine sympathy, tenderness, and love, 
— more of this Charity, that beareth all things, be- 
lieveth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
things ! 

But let us not forget that there is a false as well 
as a true charity, and as we cultivate the true let 
us also shun the false. 

True charity does not confound all moral distinc- 
tions, and call darkness, light; and bitter, sweet; and 
evil, good. Christ-like Charity does not proclaim 
that all doctrines, all creeds, all churches, all wor- 
ship, are equally and alike acceptable to God. This 
modern sentimental Broad-church charity found 
no place in the heart and teachings of Jesus of 
Nazareth. He did not hesitate to denounce in 
unmeasured terms untruth, hypocrisy, false doc- 
trine, and false teachers. 

Among His first official acts as a Teacher sent 
g 13 



146 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

from God was His purifying the Temple. This 
Holy Place of prayer and worship had been trans- 
formed into a place of merchandise; when He came 
up to the Passover, and found the Temple thus 
desecrated, He overthrew the tables of the money- 
changers, and drove them, in righteous indignation, 
from its sacred precincts, saying, Ye have made 
this house of prayer a den of thieves. 

The scribes and Pharisees, the leaders and 
teachers of the people, had corrupted the Word 
of God, and by their traditions had made void His 
commandments. Does Christ speak to them in 
words smoother than butter, and sweeter than 
honey? I trow not; His words are, Woe unto 
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye shut 
up the kingdom of Heaven against men : for ye 
neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them 
that are entering to go in: ye compass sea and 
land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, 
ye make him twofold more the child of hell than 
yourselves. Woe unto you, scribes and hypocrites! 
whited sepulchres, full of dead men's bones and 
of all uncleanness ! — ye serpents, ye generation of 
vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ? 
Remember that it is the meek and lowly Jesus 
who thus tears the mask from the face of hypoc- 
risy, and who scathes with the lightnings of His 
righteous wrath all false doctrine and false teachers. 

So also as regards the torments of the lost, 



Personal Peculiarities of Christ, 147 

Christ of all teachers presents this subject in its 
most awful and appalling light. It is Jesus who 
tells us of the fire that is never quenched, and of 
the worm that never dies ; of the outer darkness, 
where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing 
of teeth ; of the great gulf that is eternally fixed, 
across which none can ever pass ; of the cry from 
the place of torment for one drop of water to cool 
the parched tongue. Beware of Him who has 
power to cast both soul and body into hell forever. 
Ah, my friends, have you ever paused to think that 
these fearful words fell from the lips of Him who 
was indeed Incarnate Love, but who was also Incar- 
nate Righteousness ? 

We have fallen upon evil times when men are 
boastful of a charity that exceeds the charity of 
God Himself; when men are clamorous for an en- 
thusiasm of humanity beyond the love which Jesus 
had for a lost and ruined race; when we must 
have a Broad-churchism that welcomes and cher- 
ishes as true, doctrines denounced as false by the 
Son of God Himself; when the sickly sentimental- 
ism of this perverse generation will not and can- 
not endure the solemn and searching words of 
truth and soberness that fall from the lips of the 
wise and Holy Jesus. 

Another prominent peculiarity in the personal 
ministry of Christ i-s his large-hearted human 
sympathy. 



148 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

He was a full and perfect man, with a true body 
and a reasonable soul ; and His human sympathies 
were ever going forth in Divine fullness to all the 
children of men. For every age and class and 
condition of mankind His heart is filled with the 
tenderest love ; while His humble birth and man- 
ner of life fitted Him pre-eminently to be the 
friend of the common people who ever heard 
Him gladly. He moved men because He felt for 
them, and yearned after them with all a brother's 
tenderness. 

He is an honored and welcome guest at the tables 
of the rich and the homes of the poor ; He blesses 
with His presence the marriage festival in Cana of 
Galilee, and sheds tears of human sorrow in the 
abodes darkened by death ; He resolves the doubts 
of rich rulers who come to Him at night, and gives 
healing and sight to blind beggars who cry to Him 
by the wayside ; He has words of compassion for 
wretched women, and takes little children in His 
arms to bless them. His words of wisdom come 
welling forth warm from a heart full of truest 
human tenderness and love, and hence they fall 
not unheeded upon human hearts ; the common 
people heard Him gladly, and even the officers sent 
by His enemies to arrest Him were forced to bear 
witness, Never man spake like this man. 

The true orator has ever been a man of warm 
impulses and emotions ; the cold-blooded man can 



Personal Peculiarities of Christ, 149 

never move powerfully the feelings of his hearers. 
Above all teachers who have ever lived Jesus of 
Nazareth possessed the soul of largest human 
sympathies, and hence it is no marvel that He 
always so moved the hearts of His hearers. 

His sympathy for the poor, the needy, the suf- 
fering, was absolutely inexhaustible. No child of 
sorrow ever applied to Him in vain. Nor was this 
human tenderness confined to His own friends or 
family or nation : it goes forth as warmly to the 
despised Samaritan as to the favored children of 
Israel. With Him there is neither circumcision 
nor uncircumcision : all the children of Adam are 
alike the objects of His kindly regard. It is safe 
to say that no other Teacher ever had such world- 
wide sympathy with the human race. 

There is a most striking contrast between Christ 
and all other teachers in one particular, viz., The 
effect of His doctrines upon the public mind. Per- 
haps no human teacher is entirely free from a feel- 
ing of uneasiness as to the result of his teachings. 
He is ever asking, How will this doctrine be re- 
ceived by the public ? What effect will it have 
upon the people ? Will this book which I have 
written live? In spite of himself the earthly 
teacher has always a feeling of more or less uneasi- 
ness as to the reception which his instructions will 
meet with from the general public. In vain will 
you search most carefully through all the teach- 

13* 



150 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

ings of Jesus of Nazareth for the slightest trace of 
this feeling of uneasiness. He never has the least 
misgiving as to the result of His words, — those 
words shall not return unto Him void ; some will 
fall by the wayside, some on stony ground, some 
among the thorns, some into good soil, but the 
harvest is sure ; the Word shall accomplish His 
pleasure, and shall prosper in the thing whereto 
He sent it. 

And this results from that profound knowledge 
of all things, past, present, and future, which He 
seems to possess, and which is inseparable from 
all His teaching. He cannot have any uneasiness 
as to the result, if He has perfect knowledge of 
what that result will be upon all generations, 
through all time. 

So perfect is this knowledge of Christ that no 
man has ever been able to show that He was ever 
mistaken in the least particular upon any subject 
on which He ever spoke. If He were not a Di- 
vine teacher, surely these eighteen hundred years 
of keenest scrutiny and hostile criticism would 
have found some mistake somewhere in His teach- 
ings. 



Christy the Revealer of God. 151 



CHAPTER IX. 

CHRIST, THE REVEALER OF GOD. 

Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it suf- 
ficeth us. 

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and 
yet hast thou not known Me, Philip ? he that hath seen Me hath 
seen the Father. 

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in 
Me ? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but 
the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe me 
that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. 

Jesus of Nazareth was not only a Teacher come 
from God, He was also the Revealer of God to 
man ; neither knoweth any man the Father save 
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
Him. 

Jesus claimed that He was the Brightness of the 
Father's glory, the Express Image of His Person ; 
that whosoever had seen and known Him had seen 
and known the Father also. He came not merely 
to tell us about God, but to show us precisely what 
God was. 

In this conversation He unfolds in the clearest 
possible manner the mode of the Divine Existence. 

There is absolute oneness of Life and Being be- 



152 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

tween the Father and the Son; not only is there 
oneness, there is also mutual indwelling ; so that 
the Father dwells in the Son and the Son in the 
Father: and so absolute and complete and perfect 
is this oneness and indwelling that he who knows 
the Son knows the Father ; and he who knows all 
that is to be known of the Son, knows all that can 
be known of the Infinite and Eternal Godhead. 

These are most remarkable statements, and if 
true, carry our knowledge of God up to the high- 
est possible point; for nothing less is claimed than 
a perfect revelation of the Godhead. I do not re- 
member that this claim has ever been put forth by 
any human being save Jesus of Nazareth ; and its 
boundless presumption, if false, must have con- 
. signed Him and His teachings to everlasting con- 
tempt. 

We may not be able to explain fully to our own 
satisfaction all that is involved in these words of 
Jesus, or how it is that He and the Father are 
one, and dwell mutually in each other, but the im- 
port of the words is obvious, and the fact is indis- 
putable. Our knowledge of facts is not limited by 
our ability to explain and harmonize them. The 
point insisted on here is, that Jesus of Nazareth 
does claim that in His Person, words, works, and 
character He is a Perfect Revelation or Manifesta- 
tion of God ; he that hath seen Me hath seen the 
Father. 



Christ, the Rev e ale r of God. 153 

Everything in nature has within itself some ca- 
pacity or power whereby it manifests or makes 
known to intelligent beings its properties and 
characteristics. We have no certain knowledge 
of essences ; all that we know is properties, phe- 
nomena, manifestations. The character or nature 
of a tree is revealed or manifested to us by its 
foliage and fruit. Every tree has this capacity 
for making itself known, and we know the tree 
only through its properties and manifestations. 
So man has the capacity for making himself 
known to his fellow-men. His innermost being 
is revealed in his words, works, and conduct, and 
by these we have a more or less perfect knowl- 
edge of every man's character. 

If we had perfect knowledge of all the words and 
deeds of a man, and if these words and deeds ac- 
corded perfectly with his thoughts and feelings, we 
would have a very complete knowledge of the man. 

Now this same principle has its finest illustra- 
tion when applied to God. We may have no 
knowledge of the Essence of the Godhead, but 
if there are any works and words of God, these 
must of necessity reveal or make Him known to 
all beings possessed of intelligence. 

It is simply impossible for God to be and speak 
and do without thereby revealing Himself to man. 
It is an absolute necessity, in the very nature of 
existence, that His works and words shall make 

G* 



154 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Him known. If the fact of a Personal, extra- 
mundane Creator be admitted, then it follows that 
all of His works will make Him known to the 
thoughtful and honest seeker after truth. God is 
manifested, revealed, made known to men in all 
of His works and words. 

As the careful husbandman is manifested in the 
well-tilled farm and luxuriant harvest, as the skill- 
ful artisan is mirrored forth in the admirably con- 
structed engine, as the statesman is revealed in his 
able address on Government, as the poet is made 
known in the song which all men sing, so the In- 
finite and Eternal God is revealed in His works 
of skill and power, and in His words of wisdom, 
truth, and love. 

So far from it being impossible for the Infinite 
to reveal Himself to man, it is utterly impossible 
for that revelation not to be made, if there be any 
Infinite Creator and any intelligent creature. Every- 
thing that God makes must and does, to a greater 
or less degree, make Him known to all intelligent 
creatures. 

It is true that the light would not reveal the 
sun to a man born blind, so neither would the Light 
reveal the Sun of Righteousness to the spiritually 
blind. There must be a capacity to receive the 
revelation which God makes. The sweetest song 
of the poet would not reveal the poet to the dumb 
brute. 



Christ, the Revealer of God. 155 

In everything that God makes, in every word 
that God speaks, in every work that God performs, 
He reveals Himself to all who have capacity to 
receive the knowledge thus conveyed, and in this 
sense and to this extent the whole universe is a 
manifestation of God. If there be works and 
words of God, they must make Him known who 
made and spoke them. 

Hence His Eternal Power and Godhead are 
clearly seen in the things that are made by Him. 
The skill of the artisan is seen in the watch, the 
work of his hands ; the wisdom and power of the 
builder are revealed in the steam-engine that he 
has constructed ; so the wisdom and power of God 
are manifested in all the works of creation. Every- 
thing that is made reveals something of the Infinite 
Creator. 

Mere material works, however, cannot make 
known to us the moral character of God. Foras- 
much, then, as we are the offspring of God, we 
ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto 
gold or silver or stone. The existence of the 
human soul, made in the image and after the like- 
ness of God, is evidence conclusive of His spirit- 
uality, that He is not material; and hence in the 
moral and spiritual nature of man we have an ad- 
ditional and better manifestation of God. God's 
intelligence, will, and holiness were seen mirrored 
forth in the human spirit, made originally in the 



156 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

very image of God Himself. To the utmost limit 
of his capacities man, in his unfallen condition, 
was a correct likeness of God. The Father re- 
vealed Himself to the children of men in the 
human soul itself. To know man, therefore, was 
to a certain extent to know God. 

And so, as the activity of God goes forth into 
all human history, in that Providence which works 
all things according to the purpose of His own 
will, His character as Moral Ruler is revealed, 
and thus by all of these manifestations we learn to 
know Him, whom to know aright is life eternal. 

It is evident that these revelations of God, how- 
ever perfect they may be in kind, are in their very 
nature limited and incomplete ; they are at best 
only partial manifestations of Him who is abso- 
lutely Infinite. The revelation is clear but not 
complete. The engine reveals the wisdom and 
power of its builder, but tells us nothing of his 
moral character. The song of the poet makes 
known the heart of the writer, but it does not tell 
us all of the soul of the man. It may be perfect 
as far as it goes, but it does not go all the way. 

So the material creation, the moral nature of 
man, and the Providential Government fail, from 
their very nature, in revealing God fully and com- 
pletely. It is impossible to know God fully save 
through the Son. Not until we see Him can we 
say we have seen God. We may see in His 



Christ, the Revealer of God. 157 

works some of His attributes, but not until we 
see Jesus Christ can we see God Himself. 

I may read one of Burns's sweet songs, or one 
of Shakspeare's immortal plays, or one of Bulwer's 
incomparable stories, and acquire thereby some 
knowledge of the gifted author, but this does not 
completely reveal the writer to me, for there may 
be other works that I have not seen containing 
more of the mind and heart of the author than 
what I have seen ; and if I saw all, I have not seen 
the man himself. Until I see him, the revelation, 
however clear and perfect in kind, is still incom- 
plete. 

So I may examine the works of God, and thereby 
learn something of Him who, by the Word of His 
Power, in beauty and glory made them all ; but 
here, too, the revelation is limited by the very 
character of the works: I have not yet seen God 
Himself. 

I may hear His voice in the crashing thunders 
of the cloud ; see the glance of His eye in the 
lightning's flash; behold His immensity mirrored 
in the voiceless space that stretches on every side 
of me boundlessly away ; read of His eternal 
righteousness in that adorable providence over 
men, angels, and devils; understand something 
of His intelligence and will as I gaze into the 
depths of my own being; and feel the foretastes 
of everlasting retributions in the monitions of 

14 



158 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

my own conscience ; but still I have not seen God 
Himself; these manifestations are, at best, incom- 
plete. And still the soul of man cries out after 
God, Oh, that I might see Him face to face, — that 
I might find and know Him, and be eternally at 
rest! 

If now some Being should appear in our midst; 
One who knew all that God knew, who felt all that 
God felt, who dwelt in God, and in whom God 
Himself dwelt; whose nature was of the very 
same essence with that of God ; whose will was 
always one with the will of God, — if this Being 
thought all the thoughts of God, and had all the 
feelings, desires, and purposes of God ; if he spoke 
the words of God, and did the works of God, and 
had the character of God, — if in all respects the 
Oneness between Him and God was so complete 
and exact that He could truthfully say, I and the 
Father are one ; the Father that dwelleth in Me 
doeth the works ; the words that I speak are not 
mine, but the Father's who sent me, — if such a 
Being as this should appear among us, if we heard 
His words, and saw His works, and beheld Him as 
He was, then I claim that we would have a full, 
complete, and perfect revelation of God; so that 
we could say in strictest truth, having seen this 
Being, we have also seen God. But unless this 
has actually occurred, unless this be strictly and 
exactly true, then the entire Gospel is worse than 






Christ, the Rcvealer of God. 159 

an idle tale or dream, and Jesus of Nazareth is the 
Prince of impostors, deceivers, and liars. 

Unless Jesus Christ embodies within Himself 
the fullness of the Universe and the fullness of 
Infinite Godhead, then, indeed, is He worth to us 
less than the veriest bauble of earth; for unless 
He is this He is false in His being, claims, 
teachings, and works. We must receive Him as 
God or reject Him altogether: either the Only 
Begotten of the Father or the First Born of the 
Devil. 

In the further development of this subject, let 
me recall the attention of the reader to what has 
been already advanced in the chapter on "Christ 
teaching by Types." 

It was there seen that the entire material universe 
was built up according to certain patterns or Typi- 
cal Forms; that the law of Type prevailed in every 
part of the Cosmos ; and that every order and 
period of creation was anticipative, typical, pointing 
to something higher than itself; that all the orders 
of creation pointed forward to man the highest and 
head of the material and spiritual creation. That 
the Perfect Man, the Adam, was not final, but a 
Figure, a Tuno~ y a Type of Him who was to come, — 
that Adam was anticipative of the Second Adam, 
first the Living Soul, then the Quickening Spirit; 
the whole six days' creation not final, but in order 
to and anticipative of the Second and New Crea- 



160 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

tion, in and by Him who is its Head and Lord. 
That God, in Christ, by whom all things were 
made, and without whom was nothing made that 
is made, is Himself in Christ, the Eternal Arche- 
type, and that all orders, and ranks, and forms of 
creation head up and are recapitulated in Him, the 
Pattern, the Model, after whom they were all 
created. 

If, as the Scriptures abundantly teach, man in 
his physical and spiritual being is the highest and 
head of the whole physical and spiritual creation, 
then in man we have the best and fullest revelation 
of God; but Jesus Christ is the perfect man, He, 
too, has the u true body and the reasonable soul." 
Christ is all that Adam was, and more: for the first 
Adam was of the earth, earthy ; the second Adam 
is the Lord from Heaven, — one was created, the 
other was uncreated ; one had life breathed into 
him, the other had life in Himself eternally. 
Hence in this Second Man, Christ Jesus, this Lord 
from Heaven, we have the complete fullness of 
every revelation of God made anywhere in the 
boundless realms of the physical universe. 

The sea and sky, heavens and earth, moon and 
stars, suns and systems, cannot reveal more of the 
Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness of God to us 
than we can discern in the Person of this Seed of 
the Woman, this Son of Man, this Second Adam; 
for He is before all things, and by Him all things 



Christ, the Rev } e 'ale r of God. 161 

consist, and it hath pleased God that in Him all 
fullness should dwell. 

The works of the material creation reveal the 
wisdom, power, and Godhead of the Creator: the 
mighty miracles over all forms of nature — mira- 
cles, creative and supernatural — wrought by the 
Lord Jesus Christ reveal Him as the Mighty God, 
the Head of the New Creation. His miracle of 
turning the water into wine, in its very nature a 
creative act, manifested forth His glory, and pro- 
claimed Him nature's Monarch and Maker. The 
works wrought by Christ make known to us the 
Wisdom, Power, and Presence of Incarnate God- 
head. When we see Christ's miracles, we see God 
Himself at work, — He that hath seen Me, hath 
seen the Father also ; he that hath seen the crea- 
tive miracles of Christ, hath seen God Himself in 
the work of creation. The miracle, as we clearly 
saw in the chapter on that subject, being a manifes- 
tation of Christ, as the Messiah, Son of God, Head 
and Lord of the New Creation. 

When we hear the words of Christ, then, too, 
wc hear the words of God, for the words are not 
His, but the Father's who sent Him. 

The thoughts of the Godhead are expressed in 
words. Throughout the period of creation the 
Record reads : " and God said!' The words of 
God are always true words, — they correspond 
precisely to the thoughts and feelings of the Di- 

14* 



1 62 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

vine mind and heart. There is exquisite and per- 
fect accord between the mental states and the words 
of God. The words of Christ, therefore, always per- 
fectly express what He thinks and feels. In the 
words, no less than the works of Christ, we have 
then an exact and perfect manifestation of the 
mind and heart of God. 

But there is more here than works and words : 
God Himself is before us manifest in the flesh. 
The Divine Life is on earth in human form, that 
Life we have heard and seen and looked upon 
and handled. 

The Word — a personal name of the Son — Who 
was with God, and Who was God, was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, 
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth ; in whom were all the 
treasures of the Godhead. There is absolutely 
nothing that pertains to God that is not possessed 
in infinite fullness by His Incarnate Son, — All that 
the Father hath is Mine. Standing in the Pres- 
ence of the Word made flesh, we stand in the 
august Presence of the Infinite and Eternal God- 
head. 

The Names, the Nature, the Titles, the Attrib- 
utes, the Words, the Works of the Father are 
equally His. All men must honor the Son even 
as they honor the Father. The Life of Jesus of 
Nazareth, what He was, and did, and said, is the 



Christ, the Rev e ale r of God. 163 

perfect, full, and complete revelation of God. If 
we know the Son, then do we also know the 
Father, and to know Them is Life eternal. No 
need to ask now, " Shew us the Father, and it 
sufficeth us," for we see the Father in that Son 
who is the Brightness of His Glory and the Ex- 
press Image of His Person. 

Does any man wish to know what God thinks 
or feels or will do in reference to any subject con- 
nected with the eternal interests of man, then let 
him come and follow the Life of the God-man 
Christ, as that Life is portrayed in the Gospels. 
In these Records he will find the Eternal God 
Himself living, moving, teaching, and working. 

Does the problem of sin rise dark and gloomy 
before his affrighted gaze ? Does he ask with 
dread and terror, Will God surely punish the sin- 
ner? Then let him hear those words of awful 
horror fall from the lips of Incarnate Deity: Son, 
remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy 
good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things ; 
but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented ; 
and the great gulf is fixed, and fixed eternally. 

Nay, more than this : come to the Cross itself, 
where the Son of God hangs in the awful and un- 
told agonies of death. He is the Innocent, the 
Pure, the Holy One of God. Neither man, nor 
God, nor Devil find in Him any fault at all ; and 
yet Sin is laid upon Him, who, as our Surety and 



164 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Substitute, has taken our Lazv place. The Sin of 
the world is laid upon Him, the spotless Lamb of 
God, and hence He must die ; die amid the con- 
vulsions of nature, and in the gloom of natural 
and spiritual darkness. Until time shall be no 
more can mortal man doubt the truth of God, the 
wages of sin is death. 

But does guilt still press upon the awakened 
conscience ? Does the sinner ask, How will God 
treat me a poor, lost, helpless, hell-deserving 
wretch ? what are His feelings towards me ? will 
He have mercy? God Himself is saying to you, 
Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. Him that cometh 
unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. Son, daugh- 
ter, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. 
Look to the leper, to the woman who was a sin- 
ner, to the blind Bartimeus, to the thief, to Saul 
of Tarsus, then learn the feelings of God towards 
you. Does any poor wretched backslider ask, 
Ah ! how does God deal with such as I am ? can 
He have mercy upon me ? may I dare come to 
Him after my sad and shameful fall ? Go stand 
in Pilate's Hall, and see that eye of unwearied love 
turned full upon poor Peter; then go to the sea 
of Tiberias, and hear His words of tenderness: 
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me ? feed my 
sheep, feed my lambs, and learn how freely and 
how fully God can forgive the backslider. 



The Credentials of CI iris t. 165 

Ah ! my friends, it is in the Person and work of 
Jesus Christ that we learn all that is to be known 
of God, for He is God manifest in the flesh, and 
no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he 
to whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him; and 
this is Life eternal to know Thee the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST. 

Without any question, the most remarkable 
person who has ever appeared on this earth among 
men is Jesus of Nazareth. 

However much men may, and do, differ in their 
views concerning Him, all must admit that His 
Person, Teachings, and Influences were most won- 
derful. 

The greater part, if not all of the reliable infor- 
mation we have concerning Him, is contained in 
the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. 
This Record concerning Him, if true, places the 
reader just where those who saw and heard Him 
stood. We who have these Books stand where 
Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, John, and Paul stood ; we 



1 66 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and handle 
with their hands. If the testimony of these men 
is true, then with Thomas, we put our hands into 
the Saviour's side; with John, we see the water 
and blood; with Saul of Tarsus, we hear the audi- 
ble voice. The organs of sensation in these men 
are just as trustworthy as the organs which any 
men now living have ; if I can trust the testimony 
of my own senses concerning any external phe- 
nomena, then I can trust the testimony of the 
senses of these writers, provided, I believe them 
to be competent and credible witnesses. 

I assume, throughout, the perfect reliability of 
these writers ; and the point here insisted on is 
that, this being so, then I can just as readily be- 
lieve what I see and hear through the eyes and 
ears of Paul and John, as what I see and hear with 
my own organs of sight and sound. 

The Scriptures, therefore, is, in one sense, a great 
mass of human testimony to Jesus of Nazareth ; 
the writers tell us what they saw and heard : if 
we believe them to be true, intelligent, trustworthy 
men, then do we not occupy the same position in 
respect of Jesus of Nazareth as that held by them? 
If I believe what Saul of Tarsus says about his 
interview with Jesus on the way to Damascus, 
would the evidence be any stronger if Christ ap- 
peared in Person to me ? Are not the senses of 
Saul as trustworthy as my own ? 



The Credentials of Christ. 167 

Each generation asks for some new evidence, 
some sign from Heaven, some credential beyond 
the possibility of doubt, — the sign is not, and will 
not be given ; if men will not hear and believe 
these witnesses, neither would they be persuaded 
though one rose from the dead. 

It has never been claimed that the Credentials of 
Christ compel the belief of men ; it is only claimed 
that they are sufficient to satisfy any honest, candid, 
truth-seeking man that Jesus, who is called Christ, 
is indeed a Teacher come from God. 

Taking the Scriptures, then, at this point as a 
great mass of human testimony concerning Jesus 
Christ, the question to be considered is, Are the 
credentials of Christ as a Teacher come from God, 
herein contained, of such a nature as to satisfy the 
candid inquirer that Jesus is what He claimed to 
be? 

Not only is the Person of Christ wonderful and 
His works most marvelous, but His claims are 
absolutely amazing. He claims all that is involved 
in the widest possible meaning of the word God ; 
all of this, and nothing less will satisfy Him; and 
unless we thus receive Him, we must reject Him 
altogether. 

Any inquiry into the Credentials of Christ must 
make full account of the testimony contained in 
the Old Testament concerning Him; for lie Him- 
self claims to be the Messiah therein promised, 



1 68 Christ, the Teacher of .Men. 

and adduces the words of the Prophets as evidence 
of His Divine Mission, — telling men that if they 
believed Moses, they would also believe Him ; if 
they believed not Moses, neither would they be- 
lieve Him, — thus connecting the two Testaments 
in such a manner that they must stand or fall to- 
gether. 

1st. Jesus Himself laid great stress upon the 
testimony borne to his claims, character, and office 
by the great wilderness Prophet, John the Baptist, 
— of him Jesus says, he was a Prophet, yea, I say 
unto you, more than a Prophet: verily I say unto 
you, among them that are born of women, there 
hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist ; and 
if ye will receive it, this is Elijah who was to come. 
His contemporaries had profound confidence in 
John as a true Prophet, — saying all things that 
John spake of this man are true : and there went 
out to him, Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region 
round about Jordan, to hear and to be baptized by 
him. No man has ever lived who was held in 
higher estimation as a wise, true, and holy man, 
by those of his own day and generation, than John 
the Baptist. 

His father Zacharias, who was a very devout and 
pious man, says of him : 

Thou shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest : 
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to 
prepare His ways. 



The Credentials of Christ. 169 

The testimony which John bore to Jesus is as 
follows : 

When I came baptizing with water, I knew Him 
not; but He that sent me to baptize said, Upon 
whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and re- 
maining, the same is He which baptizeth with the 
Holy Ghost. 

The God of the Old Testament had authorized 
John's baptism and ministry; John himself did 
not know which one of all the vast multitudes be- 
fore him was the Messiah ; God promised to give 
a token whereby John might know ; the token was 
the Presence of the Spirit. 

And John adds : I saw, and bear record that 
this Jesus is the Son of God. He must increase, 
but I must decrease. He that cometh from above 
is above all ; and what He hath seen and heard, 
that He testifieth. Behold the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world. 

Is the testimony of this man John, who, in the 
opinion of all who knew him, was so true, so honest, 
so faithful, trustworthy? Is not he a far more 
competent and credible witness to the character 
and claims of his kinsman and contemporary, 
Jesus Christ, than Strauss or Renan ? Shall we 
believe the Prophet of Judea or the Prophet of 
Germany ? 

If some skeptical imbecile asks, " How do you 
know that such a man as John the Baptist ever 

H 15 



170 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

lived ?" I answer, How do I know that such a man 
as Renan or Strauss ever lived ? How do I know 
anything outside the sphere of my own personal 
observation ? 

2d. The Testimony of Prophecy. 

It is not denied by any one who has any in- 
formation that the Old Testament Scriptures ex- 
isted in their present form hundreds of years 
before Christ was born ; and it is equally certain 
that these Scriptures are prophetic. They contain 
predictions of things in the future. 

Jesus Himself said, Search the Scriptures, for in 
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are 
they which testify of Me. 

This Testimony is of a twofold character, viz., 
general and special. The spirit of the whole is a 
testimony to Jesus; and there are also special, 
minute, particular predictions concerning Him. 

The great theme of all prophecy is the Coming 
One, the Seed of the Woman, the Messiah, Prophet, 
Priest, and King. Take this element out of the 
Scriptures, and nothing remains. 

From the days of Moses to Malachi, a period 
of about one thousand years, thirty different writers 
of all ranks and conditions, and degrees of cultiva- 
tion, are portraying the character, office, work, and 
life of Him who is to come ; and the remarkable 
feature of these writings is that all the writers de- 



The Credentials of Christ. 171 

scribe one and the same Person. Each one in 
his day and generation wrote his part of the gen- 
eral description, and then passed away. And when 
fifteen hundred years had elapsed, and the descrip- 
tion was finished, lo ! it was a perfect unit, and de- 
scribed one Person; and the living Jesus of Naza- 
reth corresponded with the description in whole 
and in every part. Is this accident, or is it a 
testimony to Jesus Christ? 

Did the world ever know of a portrait of sur- 
passing beauty, of perfect proportion, of matchless 
symmetry, and of infinite grace, dignity, and ele- 
gance, to be painted by thirty different men, in dif- 
ferent parts of the globe, and in different ages of 
the world ? 

Nay, more, suppose this impossible thing to be 
possible. Let the exquisite portrait be thus painted ; 
and you come to it, and look upon it, and lo ! it is 
not a dead portrait on canvas, but a living man, 
who looks and speaks and breathes and lives. 
The ideal man of the thirty writers, through the 
thousand years, is not a mere ideal man whose 
portrait we have, but a Living Man, who walks 
among us, manifesting His glory, even as of the 
Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
truth. Again, we ask, Is this Life an accident, or 
is it a testimony to the truth of these writers, and 
the writer's testimony to the truth of the Life? Is 
this one spirit of Prophecy a testimony to Jesus, 



\*]2 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

and is the Living Jesus a Testimony to His own 
Spirit speaking by the mouth of the Prophets? Is 
this sword of the Spirit any the less sharp because 
it is two-edged ? 

The special prophecies are far too numerous to 
mention ; and the particulars concerning the Prom- 
ised Messiah are of the most minute and exact 
character. The manner of the Incarnation, the 
place of His birth, the line of His descent, His 
flight into Egypt, the form of His teachings, the 
nature of His miracles, the mode of His death, the 
casting of lots for His garments, His betrayal by a 
friend, His thirst on the Cross, His cry of deser- 
tion, the place and manner of burial, all of these, 
and many others equally specific, are an unmis- 
takable Testimony to the truth of His claims, and 
prove Him to be the Seed of the Woman, the 
Promised Messiah. 

^d. The Testimony of His own Works. 

Jesus says of John, He was a burning and a 
shining light. But I have greater witness, better 
credentials, than that of John ; for the works which 
the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works 
that I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath 
sent Me. The works that I do in my Father's 
name, they bear witness of Me. 

And surely there is no better test of what a 
man is than his works. The tree is known by 



The Credentials of Christ. 173 

its fruit. Jesus vindicates Himself to be the Son 
of God, the Promised Messiah, by His works. 

It is not the mere exercise of supernatural and 
superhuman power which establishes as true the 
claims of Christ ; for the Devil has this power, and 
has exercised it ; and one of the marks of the 
" Son of Perdition," of him whose coming is after 
the working of Satan, is that it is with all power, 
and signs, and lying wonders, duva/jLsi — (ryfieiui<; — 
xat zzpaai (peudooq : the very words descriptive of 
Christ's works. It is not, therefore, the work of 
power, but the kind of work of power, and the kind 
of truth proclaimed, with which the work is con- 
nected. Hence the necessity of the recognition 
of the personality of the Devil, and the distinct 
appreciation of the nature of his kingdom and 
works, in order to an intelligent understanding of 
Christ's claims, credentials, and works; for this 
purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He 
might destroy the works of the Devil. 

It is not the miracle, but the character of the 
miracle, and the relation of the miracle to the 
Devil and his kingdom; and the relation of the 
miracle to the Truth taught by Messiah, that is 
the true and unmistakable credential. It is the 
peculiar character of the works of Christ that 
attests His claims as Son of God. 

There is complete correspondence in the char- 
acter of the Son of God, and the character of the 

15* 



174 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Messiah as predicted in the Scripture, and the 
character of the works performed, and the truth 
proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth ; and it is this 
correspondence, this resemblance, that is the strongest 
element in the testimony of Christ's works to His 
Divine Sonship and Messiahship. No man can 
do the miracles that Thou doest except God be with 
him. 

The works of Christ are works of Divine Love 
to lost man, works of Divine cleansing to corrupt 
man, works of Divine mercy to suffering man; 
they are works of Divine Justice and Judgment 
upon Satan, the Enemy, the Adversary, the De- 
stroyer, and upon His kingdom of Darkness and 
Death : they are works in perfect harmony with 
the Gospel of love, and cleansing, and mercy, and 
righteousness, and truth, and justice, and judgment, 
— the Gospel proclaimed, bears witness to the 
works, and the works bear witness to the Gospel ; 
and both are the Testimony, the Credentials to the 
Sonship and Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth. 

The works of Christ are the forthputtings of 
Divine Power over all parts of the visible creation, 
in such manner as to destroy the works of the 
Devil, and to show forth the Wisdom, Grace, 
Mercy, and Righteousness of the Godhead, — the 
works manifest the character of God, the works 
harmonize with the character given to Messiah by 
the Prophets, the works are directed to the destruc- 



The Credentials of Christ, 175 

tion of Satan and his works, and the works corre- 
spond with the Truth proclaimed by Him who is 
the Prophet from God, the Teacher of men. The 
manifestations of the Life of the Seed of the Woman 
are themselves a Divine Work ; and thus Christ's 
Life, in its manifestations, is the Great Miracle of 
all human history. And this manifested Life of 
Jesus Christ, which men heard, and saw, and looked 
upon, and handled, is in perfect accord with all that 
we know of God, and with all the teachings of all 
the Prophets for more than a thousand years. His 
Works are in very deed His Credentials. 

But this Teacher of men affirms that He has a 
still higher credential, a greater witness than John, 
or the Prophets, or even His works ; the Father 
Himself which hath sent Me, hath borne witness 
of Me. And the Apostle John adds, If we receive 
the testimony of men, the testimony of God is 
greater; if we receive what men say, much more 
ought we to receive what God says ; if we trust 
our fellow-men, much more ought we to trust 
God; if the testimony of human persons is believ- 
able, much more is the testimony of Divine Persons 
believable. 

This brings us face to face with the Mode of the 
Divine Existence, a subject which cannot be dis- 
cussed in this connection. The doctrine of the 
Father, Son, and Spirit is not a dim, vague abstrac- 
tion, but is the very foundation upon which the 



176 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

whole superstructure of salvation rests, — it is in- 
woven with all the teachings of Christ, and is 
assumed as a fact throughout this discussion. 

If there are three Divine Persons, the same in 
substance or being, equal in all the attributes of 
Godhead and Personality, then we affirm that they 
are competent and credible witnesses, one to the 
other. 

Now Jesus declares, 4th, that He has the Testi- 
mony of the Father, — the Father bears witness to 
the Son : can we receive His testimony ? is this a 
valid credential to Christ? 

The testimony borne by the Father was in the 
realm of the physical and material, — it was within 
the sphere of the senses, — men, who were the wit- 
nesses of it, would know it, just as they knew any 
other physical phenomenon, — by the evidences of 
their senses. It was the glory of God seen with 
the eye; the voice of God heard with the ear. 

Upon three momentous occasions in the life of 
Jesus, the Father bore witness to Him, viz., at the 
Baptism, the Transfiguration, and the Last Pass- 
over: at each of these, the Father testified to the 
Sonship of Jesus. — This is my Beloved Son in 
whom I am well pleased. At the Baptism the 
Father testifies to His Son as the Teacher of men; 
at the Transfiguration, He testifies to His Son as 
King in Zion ; at the Last Passover, He testifies to 
His Son as Priest. 



The Credentials of Christ. 177 

A careful examination of the Scriptures will 
show that this testimony of the Father at these 
three different times has a direct bearing upon His 
threefold office as Prophet, King, and Priest. At 
His Baptism He is inducted into His ministry as a 
Teacher come from God ; on the Mount of Trans- 
figuration, the Shekinah Glory appears, and the 
Voice of the Father commands that obedience be 
given to the Son, the King ; at the Passover He 
goes up as High-Priest to offer Himself a Sacrifice 
for sin, and the Voice is again heard, — I have both 
glorified my name, and will glorify it again ; and 
the Voice comes to Him, even as He cries to be 
saved from the hour of the Agony and the Cross. 

John the Baptist heard the Father's Voice, and 
saw the descending Spirit, and bare Record, and 
His testimony has come down to us ; Peter, James, 
and John were with Him on the Mount, and saw 
the Glory, and heard the Voice, and saw and heard 
Moses and Elias, and have handed down to us the 
testimony of their organs of sensation to these 
physical facts; John, and Philip, and Andrew, and 
Peter, and others heard the Voice at the Passover 
in Jerusalem; and if we receive their testimony, 
then we, too, have heard the Voice of the Father 
testifying that Jesus is 1 1 is Son. The Father's 
testimony comes to us through human channels; 
but if He should speak now to each one of us, the 
testimony would have to come through a human 

H* 



178 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

channel, even the organ of hearing of each one 
who heard the Voice. 

The Divine Father declares that Jesus of Naza- 
reth is His Beloved Son, and of all beings in the 
universe He is the most competent to tell us who 
is His Son. If we cannot believe what God the 
Father says, then whom can we believe ? 

But again : The Father bears witness to the Son 
by raising Him from the dead. Jesus said plainly 
that after His death He would rise from the dead, 
and He claimed that the Resurrection would be 
the proof of His Messiahship. Before His death 
He staked the truthfulness of His claims and char- 
acter upon the fact of His Resurrection. If He 
did not rise, then His claims were all false; if He 
did rise, then they were all true. 

Now the Resurrection of Jesus was the work 
of the Father, and is expressly ascribed to Him, 
and is His testimony to the truth of all the claims 
put forth by His Son. After the Resurrection, 
Peter says of Jesus, "Whom God raised up;" Paul 
speaks of the exceeding greatness of His Power, 
which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him 
from the dead. David, a thousand years before, 
had said, Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, 
Thou wilt show Me the path of life. Him God 
raised up the third day, and showed Him openly. 
Why should it be thought a thing incredible with 
you that God should raise the dead? It is true 



The Credentials of Christ. 179 

that by reason of the oneness of the Divine Es- 
sence, the Resurrection is ascribed to the Son, and 
also to the Spirit : this, however, does not prove 
that the Father did not raise Him from the dead ; 
but that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one in 
Essence and Life. 

The question whether or not Jesus was raised 
from the dead is one of simple fact. If Jesus did 
rise from the dead, then it is a fact, an event, a 
phenomenon in the physical world, in the sphere of 
the visible, the tangible, the material ; and as such 
it can be authenticated in no other way than by 
the evidence presented to the senses ; precisely as 
any physical phenomenon, any fact, any event is 
authenticated. Did men see Him with their eyes, 
hear Him with their ears, handle Him with their 
hands, and did they upon this testimony of their 
senses know Him as the same" Jesus ? Upon this 
point, the testimony of the eye and ear witnesses 
to the fact alleged is abundant, clear, competent, 
and credible. More than five hundred persons 
saw, heard, handled, and knew Him; and then 
many of them suffered death rather than modify 
or retract this testimony. If these witnesses are 
true, if Jesus is risen, then has God the Father 
testified in the most open, convincing, and emphatic 
manner to the Sonship and Messiahship of Jesus 
of Nazareth. If one purpose of the human testi- 
mony of the Bible is to place us where these wit- 



1 80 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

nesses stood, that we may see with their eyes, hear 
with their ears, and handle with their hands, then 
do we see, hear, handle, and know the Risen Jesus, 
and we know too that He is True, for God hath 
certified Him to us by raising Him from the dead. 

There is another line of thought in the same 
direction, viz., the witness borne by the Holy 
Ghost to the character and claims of Jesus Christ. 
Not one, but two Divine Persons bear witness to 
the Son : the Father and the Spirit. 

The Word spoken by the Lord was confirmed 
unto us : God bearing witness both with signs and 
wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of 
the Holy Ghost. Jesus spoke of the testimony 
that the Spirit would bear to Him: He shall testify 
of Me. There is a Person possessed of Divine 
attributes called the Holy Ghost, the Spirit, the 
Comforter, from whom spiritual influences emanate, 
and by whom spiritual impulses are communicated 
to men ; and the influence thus exerted is always 
in the nature of Testimony to Christ, and is thus 
one of His Credentials as the Teacher of men. 

The Spirit never speaks of Himself, but whatso- 
ever He shall hear, that shall He speak. This 
testimony borne by the Spirit to Christ is thus 
classified by Jesus Himself: 

1st. He shall abide with the believers in Christ 
forever. 

2d. He shall be in them and dwell with them. 



The Credentials of Christ. 181 

3d. He shall teach them. 

4th. He shall bring all things to their remem- 
brances, whatsoever Jesus said. 

5th. He shall testify of Christ. 

6th. He shall guide them into Truth. 

7th. He will reveal things to come. 

8th. He will convince the world of sin, of right- 
eousness, and of judgment. 

The work of the Spirit in His relation to men is 
that He is 

1st. An Abider, 

2d. An Indweller, 

3d. A Teacher, 

4th. A Remembrancer, 

5th. A Witness, 

6th. A Guide, 

7th. A Revealer, 

8th. A Reprover. 

In all these various offices or functions of His 
office the Spirit is a Divine Witness to the Truth 
of the Claims of Jesus of Nazareth. The Spirit 
beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth. 

The Spirit reveals Christ to men, brings His 
Words to their remembrance, guides them into 
truth, teaches them, abides with them, dwells in 
them, convinces men of sin, righteousness, and 
judgment; and in all this work He never speaks 
of Himself, never brings Himself into view, but 
always testifies of Christ. 

16 



1 82 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, from 
the day of Pentecost down to the present time, 
testifies that whatever spiritual impulse or life he 
has is due to the Holy Ghost, and whatever knowl- 
edge of Christ the Lord he has, has been com- 
municated to him by the Spirit. And this testi- 
mony ought to be conclusive: for these believers, 
if they can know anything, do know what passes 
within their own souls, and what relation the Spirit 
of God bears to the inner knowledge they have of 
Jesus. If Jesus is a Person, and the Spirit is a 
Person, and the Spirit dwells in the human soul and 
reveals Christ to the Soul ; then if that soul can 
possibly have any certain knowledge of anything, 
it must know the Spirit, and it must know Christ. 

And thousands and millions of the wisest, and 
best, and truest of earth tell the same story, bear 
the same witness to the Spirit's works as related to 
Christ. If some few men, of imperfect faculties 
and unworthy character, had told us these things 
as testified to them by the Spirit, there would be 
room for doubt ; but when such men as Paul, John, 
Polycarp, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Knox, Wes- 
ley, Baxter, Milton, Newton, Duff, and thousands 
of others, true and good men, tell us that the Holy 
Ghost did tell them these truths about Christ, and 
when we know that the same Spirit is teaching us 
the very same truths, may we not ask, How is it 
possible for any candid man now to doubt ? 



The Credentials of Christ. 183 

Men claim to have certain knowledge of vegeta- 
ble, animal, and intellectual life ; while they may 
not know what is the essence of life, they do know 
that there is such a thing as life: now may not 
man have the same certain knowledge of Spiritual 
life? May he not have as certain knowledge that 
Saul of Tarsus had spiritual life as he has that 
Julius Caesar had physical life? is the evidence of 
life any the less in the one case than the other ? 

But if there be spiritual life in man, then the 
universal testimony of all who have it, is that, the 
Spirit gave it through Jesus Christ; or that Christ 
gave it through the Spirit, — He shall testify of Me. 

Rev. Joseph Parker, minister of the City Temple, 
London, in his book, "The Paraclete," says of this 
testifying work of the Spirit, as glorifying Christ : 

"The sun does not create the landscape. The 
mountain and the sea are just as high and as wide 
in the gray cold dawn as at noonday. The sun 
adds nothing to the acreage of the meadows or the 
stature of the rocks. Yet how wonderful is the 
work of the sun ! Look upon the earth in the 
pale dawn, and watch the ministry of the sun from 
hour to hour. How the light strikes the hill, 
burnishes the sea, flushes the trembling dew, and 
makes the blossoming bush burn as if with the 
presence of God ! Everything was there before, 
yet how transfigured by the ministry of light! 
The commonest things arc made almost beautiful 



1 84 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

by that benign service, and as for the higher forms 
of culture, it would seem as if one more flash of 
sunshine would make them as the angels of God. 
In this respect, what light is to the earth the Holy 
Ghost is to Jesus Christ. The Saviour is glorified 
by the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is revelation 
not creation. He does not make Christ, He ex- 
plains Him. The sun in doing all his wonderful 
work does not speak of himself; he will not, in- 
deed, allow us to look at him. If we turn our 
eyes upon him the rebuke is prompt and intolera- 
ble : the language of that rebuke is, — Look at the 
earth, not at me; see the opportunity for service 
and culture which is given you ; do not intrude 
upon my tabernacle, but work within your own 
sphere while it is called day. The Holy Ghost, in 
like manner, does not speak of Himself. He will 
not answer all our inquiries respecting His person- 
ality. We cannot venture with impunity beyond 
a well-defined line. To the very last men will in- 
quire, What is the Holy Ghost? showing that all 
attempts at exhaustive definition have ended in 
failure and disappointment. Yet whilst He Him- 
self is the eternal secret, His work is open and 
glorious. His text is Christ. From that theme 
He never strays. To the individual consciousness 
He reveals the mystery of the beauty of Christ. 
The Christian student sees a Christ which he did 
not see twenty years ago, — the same, yet not the 



The Credentials of Christ 185 

same ; larger, grander, tenderer, every day ; a new 
music in -His speech, an ampler sufficiency in His 
grace; a deeper humiliation in His cradle ; a keener 
agony in His cross. This increasing revelation is 
the work of the Holy Ghost, and is the fulfillment 
of Jesus Christ's own promise. That the Son of 
Mary should have claimed the Holy Ghost as His 
interpreter ! Observe this as an incidental contri- 
bution towards the completeness and harmony of 
the mystery that is embodied in Christ Jesus. Re- 
garded in this light it is very wonderful. The 
beginning and the end are the same, — equal in 
mystery, in condescension, in solemn grandeur. 
Thus: 'That which is conceived in her is of the 
Holy Ghost,' — this is the beginning; 'He shall 
not speak of Himself, He shall glorify Me,' — this 
is the end : are the tones discordant ? The incar- 
nation of the Son of God was the work of the 
Holy Ghost ; how natural that the explanation of 
the Son of God should be the work of the same 
minister ! As He was before the visible Christ, so 
He was to be after Him, and thus the whole mys- 
tery never passed from His own control. 

"The life of the Son of Man, as written in the 
Gospels, needs to be glorified ! He was despised 
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and ac- 
quainted with grief: He had not where to lay His 
head; He gave His back to the smiters, and His 
cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; He 

16* 



1 85 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

made Himself of no reputation; He humbled Him- 
self and became obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross ; He was rich, yet for our sakes He 
became poor : upon all this chasm, so deep, so 
grim, we need a light above the brightness of the 
sun. When that light comes, the root out of a 
dry ground will be as the flower of Jesse and the 
plant of renown, and the face marred more than 
any man's will be the fairest among ten thousand 
and altogether lovely. Such is the wizardry of 
light!" 

Thus two Beings who possess all Divine perfec- 
tions, the Father and the Spirit, bear Witness to 
the Lord Jesus Christ; if we receive the testimony 
of men, this testimony of God is greater, and more 
worthy of our credence. 

5 tli. Christ Himself His own Credential. 

If the question were raised, "Is there a sun, and 
what is his character ?" the best answer would be 
obtained from a consideration of the sun himself ; 
so Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shining 
with full-orbed splendor in the spiritual firmament 
furnishes in Himself the best answer to the ques- 
tion, What, think ye of Christ, and whose Son is 
He? "As no proof beside the Light is necessary 
to show r that the Sun shines ; so we find that Jesus 
proves Himself by His own self-evidence. ,, I am 
the Light of men. 



The Credentials of Christ. 187 

An observer looks upon the sun day after day ; 
he sees the light streaming forth, and feels the heat 
radiating from that orb ; no proof is needed to 
convince him of the existence of the sun ; nor is 
the testimony of any wisest astronomer necessary 
to prove that the sun is a light -bearing and heat- 
giving body. 

And if our observer will carefully note the 
movements of the sun in the skies, and the rota- 
tion of the seasons on earth, he will soon be satis- 
fied that the influence of the sun is felt throughout 
the bounds of his observation. 

So he who will look upon the Lord Jesus as re- 
vealed to us in the Word of God will have the 
best possible proof of His existence, and that He 
is a Light- and Life-giving power in the world ; 
and the more carefully he surveys all human 
movements, the more clearly will he see the power 
of this Sun of Righteousness in them all. If man, 
by observation, may have certain knowledge of the 
material sun, may he not in the exercise of the 
same powers of observation have certain knowledge 
of the Spiritual Sun ? — unless the absurd posi- 
tion be taken that our powers of observation 
and capacities for acquiring knowledge are far 
less in the spiritual than the physical world; 
and that man is so constituted that the more im- 
portant and necessary knowledge of certain kinds 
is to him, the less facility has he for acquisition, 



1 38 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

and the less certainty there is in his information 
when acquired. 

Beyond any question, the most remarkable phe- 
nomenon in human history is the person and work 
of Jesus of Nazareth; and we affirm that His work 
on earth is of such a nature that it is the best cre- 
dential to His claims. 

The mighty pile of St. Peter's at Rome is the 
best proof of the genius of its immortal designer; 
the Suez Canal is the living monument to the en- 
gineering ability of Lesseps ; the plays of Shak- 
speare demonstrate the poetic power of him who 
wrote them; so the works of the Jesus of Nazareth 
stand out in all human history as the everlasting 
monument of His Eternal Godhead and Divine 
compassion. 

The woman of Samaria, at Jacob's well near 
Sychar, was right when she returned to the city, 
after her conversation with Jesus, saying, " Come, 
see a man, which told me all things that ever I 
did: is not this the Christ?" 

As we gaze upon this Jesus of Nazareth, as we 
hear His words of wisdom, and see His works of 
power and mercy, the cry is forced from our hearts 
that burst from the lips of the Roman centurion 
who saw Him die, Truly, this was the Son of God ! 

Thousands and tens of thousands, who have 
looked the longest and most earnestly and care- 
fully upon Him, have come to the same conclusion, 



The Credentials of Christ. 189 

and have made the same confession. And so 
deep and steadfast has been their faith, and so 
intense and burning their love to Him, that this 
faith and love have transformed their whole char- 
acter, and assimilated them into the likeness of 
Him whom they received as Divine King and 
Lord. The Life of the Son of Man has been per- 
petuated and prolonged in the lives and characters 
of men for more than eighteen hundred years. The 
power of this Jesus is no less to-day on earth 
among men than it was eighteen centuries ago, 
when He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, 
the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father. 

This is the perpetual miracle, the demonstration, 
against which all the weapons of infidelity fall 
harmless and broken. 

Jesus is either dead or living ; if dead, whence 
comes it that He is such a living Power in all 
human history? If living, then He is all that 
He claimed to be ; His Resurrection, Ascension, 
and Enthronement demonstrate the truth of His 
claims. 

Whatever opinions men may hold as to the 
character and career of Napoleon Bonaparte, no 
one can doubt his extraordinary mental power ; 
perhaps the human race has never furnished his 
equal. 

When a prisoner upon the island of St. Helena, 
a conversation occurred between him and General 



190 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

Bertrand, of so remarkable a character, and so per- 
tinent to the subject under discussion, that I here 
copy it almost in full ; and I do this the more 
readily, in the hope of placing this consummate 
argument in the hands of some who otherwise 
might have no opportunity for seeing it. 

General Bertrand : 

" I cannot conceive, sire, how a great man like 
you can believe that the Supreme Being ever ex- 
hibited Himself to men under a human form, with 
a body, a face, mouth, and eyes." 

Napoleon replied : 

" I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ 
is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance 
between Christ and the founders of empires and 
the gods of other religions. That resemblance 
does not exist. There is between Christianity and 
whatever other religion the distance of infinity. 

" We can say to the authors of every other re- 
ligion, ' You are neither gods nor the agents of the 
Deity. You are but missionaries of falsehood, 
moulded from the same clay with the rest of mor- 
tals. You are made with all the passions and vices 
inseparable from them. Your temples and your 
priests proclaim your origin.' Such will be the 
judgment, the cry of conscience, of whoever ex- 
amines the gods and the temples of paganism. 

" Paganism was never accepted, as truth, by the 
wise men of Greece ; neither by Socrates, Pythag- 



The Credentials of Christ 191 

oras, Plato, Anaxagoras, or Pericles. On the other 
side, the loftiest intellects, since the advent of 
Christianity, have had faith, a living faith, a prac- 
tical faith, in the mysteries and the doctrines of 
the Gospel ; not only Bossuet and Fenelon, who 
were preachers, but Descartes and Newton, Leib- 
nitz and Pascal, Corneille and Racine, Charle- 
magne and Louis XIV. 

" Paganism is the work of man. One can here 
read but our imbecility. What do these gods, so 
boastful, know more than other mortals ? these 
legislators, Greek or Roman, this Numa, this 
'Lycurgus, these priests of India or of Memphis, 
this Confucius, this Mohammed? Absolutely 
nothing. They have made a perfect chaos of 
morals. There is not one among them all who 
has said anything new in reference to, our future 
destiny, to the soul, to the essence of God, to the 
creation. 

" I see in Lycurgus, Numa, and Mohammed 
only legislators, who, having the first rank in the 
State, have sought the best solution of the social 
problem; but I see nothing there which reveals 
divinity. They themselves have never raised their 
pretensions so high. As for me, I recognize the 
gods and these great men as beings like myself. 
They have performed a lofty part in their times, 
as I have done. Nothing announces them divine. 
On the contrary, there are numerous resemblances 



192 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 

between them and myself; foibles and errors 
which ally them to me and to humanity. 

"It is not so with Christ. Everything in Him 
astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will 
confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in 
the world there is no possible term of comparison. 
He is truly a being by Himself. His ideas and His 
sentiments, the truths which He announces, His 
manner of convincing, are not explained either by 
human organization or by the nature of things. 

" His birth, and the history of His life ; the pro- 
fundity of His doctrine, which grapples the mighti- 
est difficulties, and which is of those difficulties the 
most admirable solution ; His Gospel, His appari- 
tion, His empire, His march across the ages and 
the realms, — everything is, for me, a prodigy, a 
mystery insoluble, which plunges me into a reverie 
from which I cannot escape, — a mystery which is 
there before my eyes, — a mystery which I can 
neither deny nor explain. Here I see nothing 
human. 

" The nearer I approach, the more carefully I 
examine, everything is above me, — everything 
remains grand, of a grandeur which overpowers. 
His religion is a revelation from an intelligence, 
which certainly is not that of man. There is 
there a profound originality, which has created a 
series of words and of maxims before unknown. 

" I search in vain in history to find the similar 



The Credentials of Christ. 193 

to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach 
the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor 
the ages, nor nature offer me anything with which 
I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here 
everything is extraordinary. The more I consider 
the gospel, the more I am assured that there is 
nothing there which is not beyond the march of 
events, and above the human mind. 

" You speak of Caesar, of Alexander; of their 
conquests, and of the enthusiasm which they en- 
kindled in the hearts of their soldiers. But can 
you conceive of a dead man making conquests, 
with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his 
memory ? My armies have forgotten me, even 
while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot 
Hannibal. Such is our power! A single battle 
lost crushes us, and adversity scatters our friends. 

11 Can you conceive of Caesar as the eternal em- 
peror of the Roman senate, and from the depths 
of his mausoleum governing the empire, watching 
over the destinies of Rome ? Such is the history 
of the invasion and conquest of the world by Chris- 
tianity. Such is the power of the God of the 
Christians; and such is the perpetual miracle of 
the progress of the faith and of the government of 
His church. Nations pass away, thrones crumble, 
but the church remains. What is then the power 
which has protected this church, thus assailed by 
the furious billows of rage and the hostility of 
1 17 



194 Christ \ the Teacher of Men. 

ages ? Whose is the arm which, for eighteen 
hundred years, has protected the church from so 
many storms which have threatened to engulf it ? 

" Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself 
founded empires. But upon what did we rest the 
creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ 
alone founded His empire upon love ; and at this 
hour millions of men would die for Him. 

" In every other existence but that of Christ, 
how many imperfections? Where is the charac- 
ter which has not yielded, vanquished by obstacles ? 
Where is the individual who has never been gov- 
erned by circumstances or places, who has never 
succumbed to the influence of the times, who has 
never compounded with any customs or passions ? 
From the first day to the last He is the same, always 
the same ; majestic and simple, infinitely firm and 
infinitely gentle. 

" Truth should embrace the universe. Such is 
Christianity, the only religion which destroys sec- 
tional prejudice, the only one which proclaims the 
unity and the absolute brotherhood of the whole 
human family, the only one which is purely spir- 
itual ; in fine, the only one which assigns to all, 
without distinction, for a true country, the bosom 
of the Creator, God. Christ proved that He was 
the Son of the Eternal, by His disregard of time. 
All His doctrines signify one only, and the same 
thing, Eternity. 



The Credentials of Christ. 195 

"It is true that Christ proposes to our faith a 
series of mysteries. He commands, with author- 
ity, that we should believe them, giving no other 
reason than those tremendous words, '/ am God! 
He declares it. What an abyss He creates by that 
declaration, between Himself and all the fabri- 
cators of religion! What audacity, what sacri- 
lege, what blasphemy, if it were not true ! I say 
more; the universal triumph of an affirmation of 
that kind, if the triumph were not really that of 
God Himself, would be a plausible excuse, and 
the proof of atheism. 

" Christ speaks, and at once generations become 
His by stricter, closer ties than those of blood; by 
the most sacred, the most indissoluble of all unions. 
He lights up the flame of a love which consumes 
self-love, which prevails over every other love. 
The founders of other religions never conceived 
of this mystical love, which is the essence of Chris- 
tianity, and is beautifully called charity. In every 
attempt to effect this thing, namely, to make him- 
self beloved, man deeply feels his own impotence. 
So that Christ's greatest miracle undoubtedly is, 
the reign of charity. 

" I have so inspired multitudes that they would 
die for me. God forbid that I should form any 
comparison between the enthusiasm of the soldier 
and Christian charity, which are as unlike as their 
cause. 



196 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

" But, after all, my presence was necessary ; the 
lightning of my eye, my voice, a word from me ; 
then the sacred fire was ^kindled in their hearts. 
I do indeed possess the secret of this magical 
power, which lifts the soul, but I could never im- 
part it to any one. None of my generals ever 
learnt it from me. Nor have I the means of per- 
petuating my name and love for me, in the hearts 
of men, and to effect these things without physical 
means. 

" Now that I am at St. Helena; now that I am 
alone chained upon this rock, who fights and wins 
empires for me ? who are the courtiers of my mis- 
fortune ? who thinks of me ? who makes efforts 
for me in Europe ? where are my friends ? Yes, 
two or three, whom your fidelity immortalizes, you 
share, you console my exile." 

Here we reach the highest possible point in the 
argument for the truthfulness of the claims of Jesus 
of Nazareth. He comes to us attested as the Son 
of God in every possible way, and is Himself His 
own Credential. 

The issue presented to every man by this dis- 
cussion is very simple. Either Christ is all that 
He claimed to be, or He is an impostor, a deceiver, 
a blasphemer. There is no middle position between 
these two points. We must receive, believe, and 
adore Him as the Son of God, the Messiah of 
Scripture, the Saviour of men, or we must join in 



The Temptation of Christ. 197 

the cry, Away with such a fellow from the earth ! 
Crucify Him, crucify Him! 

What think ye of Christ ? whose Son was He ? 



CHAPTER XL 

THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. 

Matt. iv. 1 : Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the will 
derness to be tempted of the Devil. 

Heb. iv. 15 : But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin. 

Heb. ii. 14 : That through death He might destroy him that had 
the power of death, that is, the Devil. 

At the first glance, this subject may seem to be 
aside from the general scope of this treatise ; but 
closer inspection will show its direct and imme- 
diate connection with Christ's work, as the Teacher 
sent from God. In the Temptation there is a most 
signal display of His Mediatorial office, and a most 
marvelous exaltation of the written Word, given 
by Him as Teacher of men. 

There is the more need of a thorough Scriptural 
statement of the truths involved in the temptation, 
since one of the most popular of the recent lives 
of Christ seems to ignore or reject the objective 
reality of demons and demoniacal possessions, and 

17* 



198 Christy the Teacher of Men, 

therein to vitiate the doctrine of the inspired author- 
ity of all of Christ's teachings. 

The Baptism, by John, of Jesus of Nazareth was 
to reveal Him to Israel as the Messiah of God, 
promised to His chosen and covenant people. The 
Baptism manifested Jesus as the Messiah. 

Baptized thus, as the Prophet like unto Moses, 
Jesus of Nazareth, the Teacher of men, goes into the 
wilderness, and, after the example of the two great 
Prophets of the Old Dispensation, fasts forty days. 

In order that He may be a faithful and merciful 
High-Priest, touched with a feeling of our infirmi- 
ties, He must be tempted in all points like as we 
are. In order that as King He may conquer him 
who had the power of death, it behooved Him to 
be a partaker of flesh and blood, that by death He 
might destroy the Devil. 

All of Christ's dealings with the Devil, in the 
temptation, are not private and personal, but pub- 
lic and official ; and all of Satan's assaults are di- 
rected against Him, not as the individual man, 
but as the Baptized Mediator of the Covenant of 
Redemption. 

The record of the temptation as given by the 
three Evangelists marks it most distinctively as an 
objective historic event. 

It is located in the narrative immediately after 
His Baptism, and just before His preaching in the 
synagogue at Nazareth. 



The Temptation of Christ. 199 

It is not a mere subjective description, not the 
record of certain ideas or conceptions passing 
through the mind of the man Jesus, not what He 
thought or felt or imagined, not a mere imaginary 
temptation by a merely imaginary Devil : it is a 
record of realities, of actual transactions, of definite 
objective persons and things ; there is the river 
Jordan, the Prophet John, the audible voice from 
Heaven. So also there is a Messiah Saviour, the 
howling wilderness, the wild beasts, and a personal 
Devil. We must hold fast the integrity of the his- 
toric record ; the moment we begin to tamper with 
the Word of God, to wrest the Sacred Scriptures, 
to spiritualize away its objective facts, that moment 
we undermine the whole foundation of the Chris- 
tian Religion. 

Attention has been called to the relation of the 
Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Godhead, to 
the work of Jesus Christ as the Teacher of men ; 
so here, in the temptation, Matthew and Luke are 
both careful to state that Jesus was led by the 
Spirit into the wilderness. Mark uses the strong 
language, the Spirit driveth him into the wilder- 
ness. It was under the influence and guidance of 
the Holy Ghost that Jesus went into the wilder- 
ness, that, as the Second Adam, He might be 
tempted of the Devil. 

As has been seen, there is a most intimate and 
abiding connection between the work of Christ 



200 Christy the Teacher of Men. 

and the work of the Holy Ghost, — both of these 
Divine Persons were parties to the Covenant of 
Grace, and it was by the agency of the Spirit that 
Christ's entire work under that Covenant was 
wrought. 

In accordance with the statements of Scripture, 
the Creed of the Church universal teaches that the 
humanity of Jesus was by the Holy Ghost; His 
human soul and body were formed for Him of the 
human substance of His Virgin Mother by the 
direct formative agency of the Holy Ghost. 

At His Baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon 
Him, anointing Him above measure, and dwelling 
in Him, and thus qualifying Him for His Propheti- 
cal, Priestly, and Kingly work : as Prophet, He 
taught by the Spirit; as Priest, He offered up 
Himself a sacrifice by the Spirit; as King, He 
rose from the dead, and reigns in and over Zion 
by the same eternal Spirit. 

Nor is it too much to affirm that though His 
human soul and body were united to His Divine 
Person, so that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt 
in Christ Jesus, yet it was not more in virtue of 
His inherent Divinity than by the indwelling 
agency and co-operation of the Holy Ghost that 
He executed His glorious work as the Redeemer 
of God's elect. 

He is in the wilderness to fast forty days, even 
as His great Prophetical Types, Moses and Elijah, 



The Temptation of Christ. 201 

fasted forty days ; in the wilderness to be tempted 
of the Devil, even as the first Adam was in the 
garden to endure temptation from the same fallen 
and malignant Being ; He is in the wilderness by 
the Providential ordering of His Father, God, and 
by the special guidance of the Holy Ghost. 

Temptation, as the word is ordinarily used, is 
the presentation of some motive to the mind and 
heart influencing or inducing the person to sin. 

As thus defined, temptation may be either objec- 
tive or subjective, outward or inward, — it may be 
presented to us from without, or it may arise from 
within, from the unholy motions of our own de- 
praved natures. 

Temptation may be either with or without sin 
on the part of the person tempted, — temptation 
does not in itself necessitate sin. If the tempted 
person yields to the evil suggestion, gives it place 
in his heart, encourages it, then there is sin ; but 
if he sets his face against it, resists and repels it, 
then there is no sin. 

When Satan tempted the woman, she yielded to 
his evil suggestion, her will consented, and thus 
she sinned and fell. Joseph was tempted by Poti- 
phar's wife to commit adultery, but he repelled the 
thought, his will resisted the evil, and he fled from 
the temptation. In the one instance there was sin, 
in the other no sin, only temptation. Let no man 

say when he is tempted, " I am tempted of God," for 
1* 



202 Christ, the^ Teacher of Men. 

God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth 
He any man; but every man is tempted when he 
is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. 

The statement is explicitly made in the Scrip- 
tures that Jesus was tempted in all points like as 
we are, yet without sin. It is impossible for us to 
comprehend or explain how evil can originate in 
the heart of a perfectly pure and holy being, — how 
the inward temptation presents itself to the sinless 
creature, all of whose dispositions and tempers are 
holy; and if we could understand and explain this, 
then we would have a perfectly satisfactory solution 
of the great and perplexing problem of the origin 
of evil. 

Jesus was a holy creation, — the direct product 
of the power of the Holy Spirit; so that He was 
that Holy Thing born of the Virgin Mother, and 
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. 
His human nature was replenished and strength- 
ened above measure by the Holy Ghost, so that 
He could not sin, — " non posse peccare!" What- 
ever temptation therefore he may endure, must in 
the very nature of the case be without sin. Evil can- 
not possibly originate with Him, sin cannot arise, 
nor can temptation be presented from within; while 
the evil suggestion coming to Him " ab extra" 
from without, will find no response in Him, and 
the temptation will be resisted, repelled, rejected; 
tempted in all points, yet without sin. 



The Temptation of Christ, 203 

As it is impossible for sin to be self-originating 
in the heart of Him who is at once the Son of 
Man and God, the temptation must come to Him 
from without. 

The Agent in the temptation is the same fallen 
and malignant Being who seduced and ruined the 
First Adam in the Garden of Eden ; not a mere 
spiritual influence, but a Wicked Person, one pos- 
sessed of all the attributes of a proper personality, 
called Satan, Devil, Baalzebub, the Prince of the 
Power of the air, the God of this world. Once a 
bright, pure, unfallen Spirit around the throne of 
God, in light; One who kept not his first estate, 
who felt not his dependence upon God, who asserted 
his own self-sufficiency, who, in the exercise of the 
freedom of his own will, fell from his high and 
holy position. 

A being of vast intelligence, of immense power, 
full of malignant cunning, the enemy of God and 
man, a Liar and a Murderer, — who is in revolt 
against the Lord, and who delights in the ruin and 
spiritual death of all the works of His Creator's 
hand. The being who in form of a serpent tempted 
Eve, the mother of us all ; who presented himself, 
with the sons of God, before Jehovah, and accused 
and tormented Job ; who sifted Peter as wheat, so 
that he denied his Saviour; who filled the heart of 
Judas, so that he betrayed the Lord of glory ; who 
has tempted and tormented all of God's saints in 



204 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

all ages, and who never ceases his wicked warfare 
against Christ and His church for ever and ever: 
even when shut up in the fires of the bottomless 
pit, his hatred anly glows with a keener intensity 
and a fiercer malignity. His depravity is so com- 
plete and unalterable, that for him there is neither 
hope nor pardon in the boundless realms of God's 
grace and mercy; for him there is nothing, through- 
out the endless ages, but the blackness and dark- 
ness of an eternal Hell, prepared in judgment and 
justice for him and for all who are his followers 
and servants. He is not omniscient, but among 
all created intelligences there is no one wiser than 
he ; he is not omnipresent, but does seem to be 
ubiquitous. 

He made his way from the domains of darkness 
to this world of ours on the morning of its crea- 
tion, and deceived and ruined the First Parents of 
our race, and in and with them all of their count- 
less children. 

The curse of God fell upon him for 'this, his sin; 
and he well remembered the Eden Promise, that 
the Seed of the Woman should bruise the serpent's 
head ; that some one coming in man's nature would 
overcome him and destroy his kingdom. 

He is not ignorant of God's purpose of Redemp- 
tion ; God of this world as he is, he is conscious 
of some mighty Saving Power at work among 
men ; having the power of death, he knows that 



The Temptation of Christ. 205 

two men, Enoch and Elijah, have been caught 
away from his grasp, and, not tasting death, have 
passed into glory ; with unwearied curiosity he has 
followed the history of Redemption as unfolded in 
the Old Dispensation, and is so familiar with the 
Word of God that he can quote the Scriptures ; 
nor are the wonderful events connected with the 
birth of the Babe of Bethlehem hidden from his 
superhuman gaze. 

He has witnessed the Baptism of Jesus by John; 
has heard the voice of the Father from Heaven, 
" This is my beloved Son" ; has seen the Holy 
Ghost descending and resting upon Him ; he 
knows that the time is near at hand when he must 
meet the "Seed of the Woman" promised in Eden. 

With his usual sagacity, he wisely selects the 
time and place for his temptation and assault. The 
Son of Man is in the wilderness, wearied with His 
'fast of forty days ; His human nature, exhausted 
with hunger and the dreary solitude of the wilder- 
ness and companionship of wild beasts, craves food 
and human sympathy. Son of God though He is, 
He is Man also; and as Man, like other men He 
is subject to weariness, hunger, and thirst. 

The Devil approaches Him with the abrupt 
salutation, "If Thou be the Son of God, command 
that these stones be made bread." 

If we regard this temptation as addressed to 
the private individual, Jesus of Nazareth, we shall 

iS 



206 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

utterly fail to grasp its mighty import and signifi- 
cance. It is not addressed to Him as a private 
individual, but to Him as Seed of the Woman, as 
Son of God, as Mediator of the Covenant of Grace; 
it is addressed to Him in His public, official, author- 
ized, representative character ; if we may so speak, 
it is presented rather to His office than to His 
person. 

If He is a mere private person, and has power 
to turn stones into bread, there can be nothing 
wrong in His exercise of this power to satisfy His 
hunger, — but if He holds an office, if He repre- 
sents others, if He has entered into and is now 
discharging covenant obligations, if He has au- 
thority to use this power only in accordance with 
that covenant, then it may be wrong to use His 
office and its power to minister to His private, 
personal wants. The minister who represents his 
nation at a foreign court may not do many things 
which it would be perfectly lawful for him as a 
private citizen to do. 

There is nothing sinful in Godhead making 
bread out of stones or out of nothing, if it please 
Him so to do ; but it is sinful for the Son of God, 
as Seed of the Woman, as Son of Man, as Medi- 
ator of the Covenant of Grace, it is sinful for Him 
in His official capacity to put forth Divine Power, 
to use His office to supply the wants of His human 
nature. The hand of the Eternal Son must not 



The Temptation of Christ. 207 

create bread in the wilderness to satisfy the hunger 
of the man Jesus, who is there enduring that hunger 
by the will and Providence of His Father, God ; 
who is there to suffer and endure by express di- 
rection and guidance of God the Holy Ghost. 
As Son of Man He suffers, as Son of Man He 
must conquer. 

This statement needs to be examined more 
closely, for it affords the solution of this entire 
transaction. 

The Son of God, in accordance with Covenant 
obligations — obligations voluntarily assumed by 
Him in behalf of His people, has agreed to take 
human nature — "a true body and a reasonable soul" 
— into eternal union with His Godhead. In this 
nature and estate He has, of His own free will, 
subjected Himself to the laws and limitations of 
this condition and sphere ; to the natural laws of 
hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, and refreshment, — 
in all things, sin excepted, it behooved Him to be 
made like unto His brethren. He shall hunger 
and thirst as men do, and as they do He shall sat- 
isfy that hunger and thirst. It is not in accordance 
with the laws and limitations of this natural sphere 
for man to satisfy his hunger by creating bread 
from stones. So the Son of Man acting for men 
may not lawfully use the power of His Godhead 
to satisfy the natural hunger of the Man Jesus. 

This, then, is the precise point of attack : Satan 



208 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

seeks to induce Him to violate His covenant ob- 
ligations, and thus at one blow he will destroy 
the Second Adam and all who are represented in 
and by Him under the Covenant of Grace ; Satan 
tempts Him to put forth His Divine power to an 
unlawful end, to do a thing in nowise sinful in 
itself, but sinful to Him in His official character. 

The Son of Man is in the wilderness by direction 
of the Holy Ghost, and under the special protec- 
tion of His Father in Heaven ; to that Father He 
must look for the supply of all His needs, and not 
to the superhuman exercise of His Mediatorial 
Power. 

Jesus knew well that He could not be true to 
His covenant obligations, true to His complete 
humanity, to its laws and limitations, if He should, 
as Son of God, change the stones around Him into 
bread. He will not violate that Covenant, He will 
not ruin those represented by Him, He will not 
use official power to supply personal wants, He 
will not give place even for one instant to this evil 
suggestion of the Wicked One. 

He answered and said, Man shall not live by 
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth 
out of the mouth of God. Perceiving at once the 
wickedness of the proposition, He does not permit 
it to make any impression upon Him, but at once 
repels it ; there is nothing in Him to respond to 
the temptation. 



The Temptation of Christ. 209 

Prophet and Son of God, His mind reverts to 
the Old Testament Scriptures ; to the history of the 
Covenant people who for forty years in the wilder- 
ness were fed by a Father's hand, — the same Father 
who cared for them will also provide for Him, the 
First Begotten Son ; the answer is ready, Man 
shall not live by bread alone. As much as to say, 
" I am here as Son of Man by the will and direc- 
tion of my Father, God; I must live by faith in 
Him and the sure word of His promise ; I am in 
the path of duty; the Spirit led me into this wilder- 
ness, I will trust my God to feed me ; I will not 
transcend those laws and limitations to which as 
Mediatorial Son of Man I voluntarily subjected 
myself. There is a higher and nobler life than that 
of the flesh ; I cannot live by bread alone, my 
spiritual nature craves Heavenly food, even com- 
munion with my Father, God, His sure Word is 
my meat and drink." The flesh is weary and 
hungry and thirsty, but the Spirit triumphs; the 
Mediator is true to His Covenant, to the interests 
of His " Covenant Clients," true to all of the con- 
ditions of His office and sphere. The tempter's 
suggestion is no sooner made to Him than it is 
rejected. 

The Apostle John says, For all that is in the 
world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, 
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of 
the world. 

18* 



2 i o Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

Under these three categories may be ranged the 
totality of man's nature ; to one or the other of 
these classifications all sins may be referred; to 
one or the other of these elements of man's nature 
every temptation is addressed. The lusts or de- 
sires of the flesh refer to bodily appetites, our 
senses : the lust of the eyes to our intellects, the 
eye being used figuratively for the mind : the pride 
of life to our emotions, — sins of the senses, of the 
intellect, of the heart. So all temptations are ad- 
dressed to one or the other of these elements of 
man's being, to his bodily appetites, or to his in- 
tellect, or to his emotions. This analysis seems to 
be exhaustive as defining the avenues whereby sin 
enters into man. The first temptation, " command 
that these stones be made bread," was addressed 
to the senses, the lusts of the flesh, — through the 
bodily desires of Jesus Satan seeks to find access 
to this soul, and draw Him away from His alle- 
giance to His Father, God, and His Covenant obli- 
gations. This temptation fails. 

In the second, the appeal is to the hist of the eyes, 
to the intellect; through this avenue the Devil 
now seeks to assail the integrity of the Mediator : 
then the Devil taketh Him up into the Holy City 
and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the Temple. In 
what manner and by what means Jesus was taken 
into the city and to the pinnacle of the Tempje 
we know not, for the Scriptures are silent on this 



The Temptation of Christ. 211 

point ; nor is it a matter of the least possible im- 
portance for us to know. 

Once on the Temple, the Devil shows his knowl- 
edge of Scripture, and his ability to quote texts, — 
If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down : it 
is written: you have just cited Scripture as a rule 
of duty, listen now to this, — He shall give His 
Angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands 
they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou 
dash thy foot against a stone. 

" John has baptized you as the Messiah ; all 
Israel is looking for your manifestation ; they seek 
a sign from Heaven : if you are the Son of God, 
the Messiah, give them the sign they seek ; cast 
yourself down into the crowded court below, and 
the people will hail you as the Promised Seed of 
the Woman; you have the protection of your 
Father in Heaven, He will give His Angels charge 
concerning Thee, for so it is written in the Psalms." 
Here, again, the assault is not upon the personal 
character, but the Mediatorial office of Jesus of 
Nazareth ; here, too, the wicked suggestion is 
spurned as soon as made. 

Jesus said, It is written again, Thou shalt not 
tempt the Lord thy God. Men must not rush 
rashly and needlessly into danger, disregarding all 
the laws of nature and Providence, and thus try 
the goodness and love of God; by expecting Di- 
vine deliverance out of danger which was in- 



2 1 2 Christ y the Teacher of Men. 

curred by violation of the Laws of God ; this is not 
trusting, but trying God. Man may not disregard 
the Law of Gravitation, and jump from some lofty 
elevation, and then look to the Lord to interpose, 
by some miracle of power and mercy, to save him 
from the natural results of his own folly. This is 
not faith y but fool] tardiness ; not trusting, but trying 
the Lord God. 

If, disregarding the laws and limitations of my 
human estate, I cast myself down from this pinna- 
cle of the Temple, I have no right to claim the 
protection of my God, and expect His Angels to 
bear me up, lest I be dashed to pieces, — this will 
be to " tempt" the Lord my God ; this I cannot do. 
Nor is my Messiahship and Sonship to be manifested 
and established by any such signs from Heaven ; 
by any such needless exercise of Divine Power in 
my behalf. 

Coming as the Messiah predicted in the Old 
Testament, Jesus of Nazareth must vindicate Him- 
self as the Son of God, by a life conformed, in all 
particulars, to the teachings of that Word concern- 
ing the Messiah. 

Jesus Christ, as the Teacher of Men, had in the 
Scriptures, by the mouth of His Prophets, inspired 
by His Spirit, accurately and fully described the 
Person and Work of the Messiah. Whoever, 
therefore, claims to be the Messiah must authenti- 
cate His claims by perfect conformity to the de- 



The Temptation of Christ. 213 

scription given by the Great Teacher in His in- 
spired Word. If Jesus is the Messiah Son of God 
He will perform works of healing and mercy, and 
by these He will manifest His glory and Messianic 
character. He may open the eyes of the blind, 
cause the tongue of the dumb to sing, make the 
lame man leap as the hart ; all of these works, in 
the physical domain, typical and illustrative of his 
cleansing and saving works in the spiritual realm, 
He may, nay, must perform; for these are the 
proofs of the Messiah; but there must not be 
one iota of unnecessary forthputting of Divine 
Power; not one single display of Omnipotence 
for its own sake, or for any merely personal end ; 
not one step in the line of tempting God, by work- 
ing a miracle to deliver the Son of Man from 
danger into which He has needlessly thrown Him- 
self. 

This was the precise kind of a sign from Heaven 
which the unbelieving Jews were continually ask- 
ing of Him, and which He so persistently refused 
to give ; saying, They have Moses and the Prophets, 
if they will not hear them, neither will they be per- 
suaded though one rose from the dead. " If with 
the Scriptures in their hands they refuse to receive 
Me as the Messiah ; if with all the evidence that 
there is to my Sonship and Messiahship, they will 
not believe, neither will they be persuaded though 
I cast myself from this pinnacle, and the Angels 



214 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

bear Me safely to the court below. Thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord thy God. " 

Just here there is a lesson of profound wisdom 
and instruction for every son of God ; he must not 
rush needlessly into places of worldliness, folly, 
and sin, and then look to his Father God for some 
special miracle to save him from the consequences 
of his own rashness and impiety. The Angels 
have no charge concerning deliverance from such 
dangers. The saints must not tempt the Lord 
their God. 

This assault upon the Mediatorial Sonship, this 
temptation addressed to the lust of the eyes, the 
intellect, fails most signally, — there is no response 
whatever in the heart of Jesus to this second sug- 
gestion of the Wicked One. 

The third and last assault is now to be made 
through the emotions, the pride of life, upon the 
kingly office of the Lord Jesus. 

The first temptation was in the line of His office 
as a Teacher or Prophet: command that these 
stones be made bread, — supply the wants of the 
lusts of the flesh, the bodily appetites. This was 
the temptation : the answer is most instructive : 
Man has a soul, no less than a body; the true 
man, the entire man, the spiritual man cannot live 
by bread alone ; he shall by the Word, the Pro- 
phetic Word of God ; by feeding upon that Bread 
shall his soul live. 



The Temptation of Christ. 215 

The second is in the line of His Priestly office. 
Cast thyself down; thou shalt not die; God will 
give His Angels charge concerning Thee: this is 
the temptation, and the answer is, — Not so : I 
came to die as the Sacrifice for man's sin ; I am 
both Priest and Victim, I must finish the work my 
Father gave me to do, and die upon the cross. 
Were I to ask, He would send twelve legions of 
Angels to bear me safely in triumph on high, — I 
will save others, myself I cannot save : I do not 
ask any miracle in my behalf; I have taken man's 
place to die for him, and I will fulfill to the last jot 
and tittle these voluntarily assumed obligations. 
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 

Through the emotional element of His nature 
Satan now assails the kingly office of Christ. He 
taketh Him up— we know not how, nor does it 
concern us to know — into an exceeding high moun- 
tain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory of them, and saith unto Him, 
All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall 
down and worship me. The Devil is fully satisfied 
now that Jesus is the Son of God, the Promised 
Seed of the Woman, who is to bruise the serpent's 
head ; and he makes one more bold, brazen, auda- 
cious attempt to destroy His integrity. 

Satan removes the mask, and reveals himself in 
all his hideous and hateful deformity, and tempts 
the Son of the Most High to worship him, instead 



2i6 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

of the True and Living God, whom only men 
may worship. All these things will I give Thee, 
if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. He appeals 
to the pride of life, to the ambitious desires of Jesus. 
He knows that the Son of God is to have a king- 
dom that shall extend from shore to shore, and 
from the rivers to the ends of the earth. He must 
have some knowledge, too, — even as Jesus well 
knew, — that the pathway to the Throne lies 
through blood, and that the Cross is before the 
Crown. 

Is it not possible for Satan to tempt Jesus aside 
from that bloody and bitter path, from that shame- 
ful and cruel cross ? He will offer Him a kingdom 
at much less cost; a kingdom which He may have 
without blood and without the cross. How much 
easier to secure a kingdom by this one single and 
simple act of homage than to win one by the awful 
anguish of the Garden, and the unutterable agonies 
of the Cross! His great mission into this world 
was to secure a kingdom, and, lo, now the Crown 
is in His very grasp ; fall down and worship Satan, 
and the kingdom is His. 

But this assault fails, most signally, even as the 
others had. The kingly Mediator is true to His 
covenant engagements ; that kingdom which is now 
His by gift of His Divine Father He will wrest 
from the God of this world, who shall be bruised 
under His Princely feet: His kingdom is not of 



The Temptation of Christ. 217 

this world; it does not lay in the sphere of the 
visible, the tangible, the material ; it is unseen, but 
it is eternal ; and can only be won by the bloody 
sweat of the Garden and the death-cry of the 
Cross. 

Jesus cannot be turned aside from the path of 
duty, however painful and dark that pathway may 
be, by any such temptation as this. 

What! He, the Sinless Son of God, worship 
this foul and fallen Spirit, this Liar and Murderer, 
in order that He, the Son of Man, may escape the 
shame of the Cross and be spared the gloom of 
the grave ? 

Get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt 
thou serve. 

The battle has been fought, the victory has been 
won : what the First Adam, as Mediator of the 
Covenant of Works, failed to do amid- the beauties 
of the unfallen Eden, the Second Adam, as Mediator 
of the Covenant of Grace, in the Wilderness, an 
hungered, and surrounded with wild beasts, has 
most gloriously accomplished. The Tempter has 
been met and vanquished. The Better Covenant 
and the covenant people are eternally safe in the 
hands of their Divine Representative. He is able 
to save eternally them that come unto God by 
Him. 

The Weapon of His defence was simple but sure; 
k 19 



2 1 8 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 

it was the Scriptures, the Word of God, the sharp 
two-edged Sword of the Spirit. 

The Written Word, given by the Great Teacher 
of men, given by inspiration of His Spirit, through 
holy men of old, who spake as moved by the 
Holy Ghost. 

To every suggestion of the Wicked One, the 
only answer He makes is, It is wrtiten, Man shall 
not live by bread alone : Thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord thy God : Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God, and Him only shalt thou serve. What an 
exalted idea should this give of the Teachings of 
Jesus, when we see Him, in this dreadful encounter 
with the Enemy of God and man, wield His own 
Word with such tremendous power and such signal 
success ! His Word liveth and abideth forever. 

Then the Devil leaveth Him, and behold Angels 
came and ministered unto Him. 

In the path of duty and obedience is safety and 
supply: the Son of Man has been true to His 
covenant obligations and to His Father in Heaven ; 
that Father careth for the Son of His love, and 
provideth for all His wants. The obedient Son, 
who refused to use His mediatorial power to an 
unlawful end, shall not perish of hunger in the 
wilderness. He who gave Manna to Moses and 
the children of Israel in the desert; Who sent, by 
the ravens, to His faithful prophet, Elijah, bread 
and flesh in the morning and the evening, will also 



The Temptation of Christ, 219 

send, by the Angels, heavenly supplies for all the 
needs of His earthly Son. 

He has been faithful at the post of duty; He has 
been tempted as Prophet, Priest, and King ; He has 
been assailed through the lust of the flesh, the lust 
of the eyes, and the pride of life ; He has obeyed 
as a Son, and triumphed as a King ; He has learned 
official obedience by the things that He has suffered, 
and, lo, now the Father has given the Angels 
charge concerning Him. 



F I N I S. 



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